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Author Topic: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)  (Read 3519 times)

TheCheeseMaker

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The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« on: November 17, 2015, 04:08:46 pm »

For a thousand years we have waited.  For a thousand years we have watched.  We have seen your victories.  We have seen your loss.  We scoffed at your happiness, and rejoiced in your pain.  But we would never take part.  We were the watchers, those who saw, but did not act.

Until now.


The Watchers

Note: The entire premise of this story is based in major spoilers.  Do not read any further unless you are prepared.

Welcome to Axedipped!  It’s was supposed to be a simple, ordinary story of a reclamation of a fortress that was lost during world gen.  I had reclaimed fortresses like this before, and always thought they were pretty interesting.  I expected this fortress to be very similar, except, immediately after embark:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The RNG decided to build the world gen fortress straight through an adamantine vein, with predictable results.

Anyway, I’m planning to make a community game out of this (not a succession fortress), so if you’re interested, feel free to claim a dwarf and write journal entries.  The dwarves right now include an armorsmith, a weaponsmith, two speardwarves and two peasants, in addition to the expedition leader who I have claimed.  I can post more information on each dwarf as necessary.

Chapters:

Chapter 1: Steel Making for Dummies
Chapter 2: Arachnophobia is for Chumps
Chapter 3: Dinosaurs, Demons, and You
Chapter 4: 1000 to 1 Are Good Odds, Right?
Chapter 5: Two Down, Eighteen to Go
Chapter 6: The Prologue is Finally Over
Chapter 7: As it Turns Out, Axedipped is a Pretty Strange Place
« Last Edit: November 30, 2015, 10:32:44 pm by TheCheeseMaker »
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De

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Re: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2015, 11:34:08 pm »

A world gen fortress that opens upon hell itself, that's the dream dude. You got the dream. I wonder how long it will last. I would take one of the smiths, if you have a smith to spare.
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PsychoAngel

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Re: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #2 on: November 18, 2015, 06:30:08 pm »

I'd like to try my hand at a military dwarf, even though I'm usually a soaper in most forts, which could still be fun anyway, but I want something different.
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Our forward thinking overseer at the time devised a way in which werebeasts can live in peace with other dwarves by utilizing the mysterious magical properties of soap!

Quote from: PsychoAngel on January 19, 2016
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TheCheeseMaker

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Re: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #3 on: November 18, 2015, 07:33:53 pm »

Chapter 1:
Steel Making for Dummies


Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The wagon slowed to a halt.  Seven figures stepped forward, all eyes staring at the building before them.  Ordinarily, the structure would be impressive, a feat of engineering nearly unparalleled.  However, as it stood, the monolith was dwarfed by the two enormous mountains to its north and south.

For a moment, nobody spoke.  The weary creatures were too tired from their journey to acknowledge each other with more than a few glances and nods.  They had made it.  For over seven hundred years, the dwarves had been without a fortress, without a place to truly come home.  On this momentous day, however, the dwarves would once again have place in this world.  Proudly, the dwarves stepped forward, eager to seek explore their new home.

 But they never got the chance.  Without warning, the air exploded into a cacophony of screams, yells, and howls.  The dwarves, taken aback, froze where they stood.  For a moment, nobody dared to even breathe.  Then, upon her realization, a lone dwarf charged forward, with one single intent: to seal away her home from the world above.

-------------------------

Journal of Asmel

15 Granite, 1000

Our sources told us that a roc lived deep within the fortress, the same roc that murdered the last of the civilized dwarves, all those years ago.  So we prepared to fight a roc.  Zon and Amost began spear training, and the rest of us began to study how to make steel, weapons, and armor.  That way when we arrived we could quickly put everything together and face the roc after a month or two, fully outfitted with steel armor and weapons for only a fraction of their price.

Well, our source was wrong.  Or perhaps he wasn’t, maybe there really was a roc living down there.  Something (or somethings) is, without a doubt.  We don’t know exactly what, but we decided not to risk finding out.  Either way, the shouted with the most horrifying screams I’ve heard in my entire life, and so I chose to use one of our logs to build a floor over the only entrance to the fortress.  We cannot get down there, and the creatures below cannot get out.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

As of right now, the plan remains the same.  We will produce the steal weapons and armor for Zon and Amost as quickly as possible.  Once that’s done, we’ll make a plan from there.  In the meantime, I’m going to construct a temporary living area for us, because it looks like it might be a while before we can enter our new home.

-------------------------

Events of Midspring, 1000

Dawnstones had a pretty good life.  The Brave Rain, they called her, for some reason.  She always had enough to eat, and she always made sure to organize all her shiny trinkets before bed.  Sometimes she would leave her house and look for more shiny objects to take with her.  For some reason everybody else she met screamed in terror when they saw her.  It’s possible that it had to do with the fact that she tended to murder everyone she saw on sight.  Or maybe they just didn’t like her that much.

Either way, she had a pretty good life.  She had lived in her home for hundreds of years.  In fact, she had forgotten a time she lived outside it.  So when the noises came, she went to investigate.  People sometimes had come into her house, and each time they left with at least one less appendage.  She figured this would be no different.


-------------------------

Journal of Asmel

22 Slate, 1000

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We have exactly six magnetite ores.  We have exactly twenty-two marble boulders.  I don’t remember completely, but we have nearly one hundred wooden logs.  To fully outfit a dwarf, we will need a total of twenty-two bars of steel.  First, Erib takes a wooden log and turns it into charcoal at a wood furnace.  She does that repeatedly for as long as the process takes.  We need a lot of charcoal.

Once that is done, Melbil takes the charcoal and smelts all six ores of magnetite, producing twenty-four bars of iron.  Since we only need twenty-two steel bars, Catten was able to take two of the bars to produce an iron axe and an iron pick.  I took the pick and began to dig a small shelter for us below the surface.  The axe is for cutting down trees.

Once the magnetite ores were smelted, Melbil took an iron bar, a marble stone, and two pieces of charcoal to make a pig iron bar.  She repeated this until we had exactly eleven bars.  As we speak, she is working on repeating the process, only taking the pig iron to produce steel.  The process is incredibly exciting.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Meanwhile, I ran into some problems while digging.  An aquifer lies immediately below us.  We cannot hope to go through it, which means our stone is limited to what little there is in the nearby mountains.  We’re going to have to breach the seal over the fortress if we want more.  I know it’s going to have to be done eventually, but I’m not looking forward to it.  Maybe what’s under the fortress isn’t as bad as we think.

15 Malachite, 1000

We have finished making all the steel.  After we finished that, Vucar began working on the armor.  As a write, she has nearly finished both sets, with only the breastplates remaining.  Amost and Zon now wear steel helms, gauntlets, low boots, mail shirts, and greaves, in addition to carrying steel shields and spears.  It may have taken a lot of effort and slowed the development of the fortress for the past few months, but it’s not like we were doing much anyway.

We have a pretty good system set up, now.  Six rooms now jut out of the hallway.  These include a farm area, a stockpile room, a dining hall, a dormitory, and two small workshop rooms for masonry and carpentry.  Right now I am attempting to build some mechanisms for the drawbridge leading into our little fortress.  It’d be pretty crappy if something showed up that our military couldn’t handle and we had no way to shield ourselves from it at all, right?

16 Malachite, 1000

Damn.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-------------------------

Events of 17 Malachite, 1000

Zon and Amoth were training.  Neither had gained much skill with a spear since their arrival at the fortress, but they were both still proficient, and they were much better armed since their arrival.  Nearby, Vucar was putting the last finishing touches on their breastplates.  The remaining four dwarves worked below, Catten growing crops, Asmel building mechanisms, with Melbil and Erib doing what they were best at: hauling. 

When Amoth saw the titan arrive, she immediately ordered the five civilians inside.  Despite the drawbridge not being completed yet, the dwarves could still build a wall to protect themselves from the beast’s onslaught.  She and Zon would meanwhile engage the beast in combat.  Looking at each other, they realized that they could not possible win the fight.  All they could do was sacrifice their lives to buy the others some time.

Well, that’s what Amoth decided.  When Zon, however, got a closer look at the titan, she decided that the best course of action was to run the fuck away.  Amoth would face the monster alone.

She watched as Amiya effortlessly murdered an aardvark.  Then it charged the fortress.  For a second, Amoth turned her head, hoping that Zon hadn’t really run off, that instead she was beside her and going to help.  Zon wasn’t in sight.  “Coward,” Amoth thought as she turned back to the monster and charged.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The titan struck first, but its movements were slow, and clumsy.  Amoth easily avoided the attack and stabbed her spear into one of the beast’s legs.  A second attack was easily blocked with her steel shield, and her counterstrike was once again successful.  Amoth, despite never having entered true combat before, was winning against the millennia old tine.

The five dwarves below quickly began building a wall to block the entrance from the outside world.  Two of the three necessary blocks were built, but there was a problem.  The third and final piece of the wall was impossible to work on from the inside.  A dwarf would have to run to the other side and seal herself out.  Without hesitation, Melbil rushed to the other side and closed the wall.  Four dwarves were safe inside.  Three were outside.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Amoth stabbed once more into the creature’s leg.  For a moment, she began to think she could win the fight, that perhaps she wouldn’t die that day.

Spoiler: Nope! (click to show/hide)

Melbil waited, just outside the wall she had finished building.  The grunts and screams of the fighters outside meant that someone was still alive.  As long as she heard that, Melbil knew she was safe.  But then the fighting stopped.  Melbil began to gently sob, the realization that she was about to die.  She dared not peek over the side of the channel, fearing that she would alert the monster to her presence.  Instead, she would wait.  Perhaps that one of the fighters was still alive.  Perhaps the titan had left.  If she merely waited there, she would be safe, she thought to herself.  Someone would come.  Someone would save her.   Somebody.

-----

OOC: I'll get both of you, De and PsychoAngel, in the next update.  Also, somehow we got attacked by a titan only four months in!  I've never seen it come this quick.  Does steel really produce wealth that quickly?
« Last Edit: November 18, 2015, 07:44:54 pm by TheCheeseMaker »
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Dozebôm Lolumzalìs

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Re: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #4 on: November 18, 2015, 07:53:32 pm »

Dorf me as the dorf about to die. "Tilat", profession "Doomed *_whatever he/she is_*". Heh. This is shaping up to be a good fort.
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Nep Nep

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Re: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #5 on: November 18, 2015, 08:40:28 pm »

 I would like to be dorfed. A female dorf would be the only thing I require.
« Last Edit: November 18, 2015, 09:41:15 pm by Nep Nep »
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Re: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #6 on: November 18, 2015, 09:33:17 pm »

Anyway, I’m planning to make a community game out of this (not a succession fortress)
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Quote from: King James Programming
...Simplification leaves us with the black extra-cosmic gulfs it throws open before our frenzied eyes...
Quote from: Salvané Descocrates
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Nep Nep

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Re: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #7 on: November 18, 2015, 09:41:42 pm »

Anyway, I’m planning to make a community game out of this (not a succession fortress)
Never noticed that, hahaha. Welp, I edited my post, aren't I an idiot?
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De

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Re: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #8 on: November 18, 2015, 10:12:06 pm »


OOC: I'll get both of you, De and PsychoAngel, in the next update.  Also, somehow we got attacked by a titan only four months in!  I've never seen it come this quick.  Does steel really produce wealth that quickly?

I had a titan attack in the first year of the current fort I'm playing, and we were not the least bit rich, having no iron ore and no coal. (I did eventually find about 7 tiles of hematite in the residential level after five years.) I think it's just being unlucky enough to embark directly next to one. Remember, enemies are supposed to be glitched and unable to find fortresses. It's just really bad luck. I trapped my titan in a staircase but I sacrificed the majority of my 20 odd dwarves to do it. I think your survivors are just going to have to live inside forever. I did manage to get migrants into my fortress while the titan was outside by strategically unlocking back doors to let them in. If you can maneuver around the fortress itself, dig some escape tunnels and gate them off then you can open escape hatches to let in migrants.
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PsychoAngel

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Re: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #9 on: November 19, 2015, 04:12:37 pm »

I once had an embark directly in the home of a titan. It never attacked us, but the dwarves would always freeze solid every time they saw it because they wanted it dead, but it could fly so they couldn't reach it. It was amusing, but it hindered the fort so bad that I had to get a new one.
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Our forward thinking overseer at the time devised a way in which werebeasts can live in peace with other dwarves by utilizing the mysterious magical properties of soap!

Quote from: PsychoAngel on January 19, 2016
Don't worry. I've got extremely volatile exploding fish.
My friends and I say a lot of fun things to each other.

TheCheeseMaker

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Re: The Watchers: The Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #10 on: November 19, 2015, 05:26:59 pm »

Chapter 2: Arachnophobia is for Chumps

Zon looked down from the north mountain.  For a few days she had been hiding here, close enough to see what was happening, but far enough away to feel safe.  All she could do was watch and wait.  She had hoped that Amoth could kill the titan.  Now one of the many sights seen from the mountainside was Amoth’s corpse. 

She had hoped she could just wait out the monster.  Eventually it would leave, right?  It would get bored.  It wouldn’t sit outside the entrance forever.  For a few seconds she debated abandoning the others, leaving them to their fate.  She had never wanted to come to the fortress in the first place, and now they all were most likely going to die here.  That was their problem, not hers.

Zon stopped before she could leave, though.  She thought she saw a flicker of movement near the entrance.  She waited, and watched, and eventually saw it again. Another dwarf was outside the fortress wall.

-------------------------

Melbil waited.  The titan seemed content with killing a horse, it paid no mind to the strange hole in the ground where Melbil hid.  For four days she had been there, with absolutely nothing to do but think.  Her life up to this point had been spent in mediocracy.  Before arriving at the fortress, she was a mere peasant.  Even now she was nothing more than an adequate furnace operator.  “A doomed furnace operator,” she thought to herself.  She made the commitment that if she survived this ordeal, she was going to make changes in her life, starting with making everyone call her, “Tilat.”  That was a good name.  That name had a story to it.

Spoiler: Tilat (click to show/hide)

If she waited too much longer, she would begin to get thirsty, then dehydrated, then die.  It was obvious that the dwarves inside were not coming for her, and it was unlikely than Zon or Amoth were still alive.  She would have to make a break for it.  If she could get to the real fortress entrance, perhaps she could seal herself inside the massive stone structure.

-------------------------

Amiya was content chomping down on the horse she had just killed.  It was hard work being a titan, always forced to kill everything you saw.  Sometimes, the tarantula wished it could just live its life, free from restraint.  But everyone has a reputation they have to keep, and Amiya was about killing everything that has a pulse.  So when she saw the small dwarf running out from the hole in the ground, Amiya had no choice but to give chase.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The chase was cut short when Zon, out of nowhere, appeared and stabbed it in the third left leg.  Between this wound and the wounds inflicted on Amiya by Amoth, the titan could no longer support its own wait, and collapsed.  Tilat, seeing her opportunity, ran off, as far away from the fight as possible.

Zon would not run off, this time.  Her cowardly acts before had cost her commander her life, and she would not let Tilat die too.  She would stand and fight.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Amiya was incredibly strong, but slow, and made even slower because it could no longer stand.  Every attack met either a shield or open air.  The titan simply could not land a hit on Zon.  The dwarf, however, landed every strike.  Every stab of the spear tore into the beast’s flesh.  Every punch, and every scratch connected.  Zon could not be killed.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It wasn’t a contest.  The monster never stood a chance.  Amiya never gave up, though; she fought to the end.  The end involved bisection by a steel spear.

She stared down at the corpse of her foe, then looked back up.  Smiling, she turned around to find Tilat.  The dwarf was no longer the same, however.  Zon would have run.  Zon would have abandoned the others to their deaths.  The dwarf that killed Amiya was something new, something different.  PsychoAngel seemed like a fitting name, a good name for the new militia commander of The Sunken Anvil.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-------------------------

Journal of Asmel

26 Malachite, 1000

It’s been five days since PsychoAngel killed the hill titan.  We’ve mostly spent the last few days doing clean-up of the battle.  We lost Amost, but we had feared much worse.  If I am thinking correctly, there were three great megabeasts who walked the earth at the beginning of the world: a dragon, whose name I cannot remember, who was eventually killed by a rutherer in this very fortress, Dawnstones, the roc, who probably was killed by those creatures deep in the fortress, and Amiya, who was PsychoAngel just killed.
 
That means that of the three original powers, none of them still live.  It also means that every single megabeast, not including the forgotten beast, which has inhabited this world has been killed at this very site.  There’s some interesting history for you.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Vucar, the armorsmith, has been inspired by the name changes of Tilat and PsychoAngel and has begun to call herelf De.  Catten, the weaponsmith, has also decided to change her name to Nep Nep.  I understand wanting to change your name, but is there a reason that they picked them that are so…strange?  None of these are true Dwarven names.

De finished the steel breastplate.  Due to a slight error (apparently, we didn’t have the materials to make steel shields, and were just supposed to use wooden ones), we don’t have enough steel bars to make a second breastplate.  I guess that means Amoth won’t get one; she’ll probably be really disappointed.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, six migrants arrived today from the wilds, which means that our population is now at twelve.  I haven’t gotten a chance to speak with any of them yet, I first wanted to write down everything that’s happened.  And you know what?  For everything that has happened, it all tturned out pretty much OK.

-------------------------

OOC: What I’ve found is that being knocked over is pretty much a death sentence, no matter who you are.  Amoth was doing well until the titan charged and knocked her over.  She didn’t get the chance to stand up, and that’s what killed her.  Still, though, a dwarf that is proficient with spears and shields, and that’s it, managed to take down a titan.  That’s pretty amazing.

@De: Your dwarf is the armorsmith, although now that we’re done making armor, she’ll probably work as a carpenter for now.  Also, what you said was pretty much my plan, but then PscyhoAngel killed the titan, so it became unnecessary.

@PyschoAngel:  There’s your dwarf, she’s really easily scared, and might run off during combat a few more times, but overall she’s a great fighter

@jwoodward48df:  Your dwarf is a furnace operator, although that’s done too now, so we’ll probably have to switch it to some other profession later.  Also, do you want me to keep the profession title ‘doomed furnace operator’ still, or change it, since she’s still alive.

@Nep Nep: You’re in luck!  Every single one of the starting seven was female.  You are the weaponsmith and a planter.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2015, 12:21:34 am by TheCheeseMaker »
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Nep Nep

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Re: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #11 on: November 19, 2015, 07:00:38 pm »

Sweet! I'm glad that this fortress started out interesting, compared to mine (although I'm content with building stuff and I do enjoy building in these games), so when will you be reenacting DOOM 2?
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Re: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2015, 03:36:43 am »

Haha, we're the Sisterhood of the Watchers. I'm sure there will be call for armor again in the future; my dwarf will be quite content making barrels until then. It's a bit ironic since my RL job is at a lumber mill. I should probably sleep before going to it but... meh. To have only three titans you either generated a very small world or set the beast counter to low, correct?
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Re: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #13 on: November 20, 2015, 10:23:38 pm »

Chapter 3: Dinosaurs, Demons, and You

Journal of Asmel, 11 Limestone, 1000

Two peasants, a clothier, a tanner, a lye maker, and a diagnoser.  Those are skills the new migrants have.  One of the peasants, Iton, at least has some novice skill a weapon (being good at a mace means you’re good at using a spear, right?).  Otherwise the skills are not very useful to anyone.  How much lye do you have to make to become a high master lye maker?  Has anyone, in the history of the world, ever, Ever, needed that much?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Kivish also managed to get on my nerves by letting his pet goose fly up on the tree and get stuck, and then he got stuck trying to go after to it!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Luckily, the fire department (an angry dwarf with an axe) managed to cut him down after a few days.  We could have gotten him down sooner, but we had more important things to be doing, like this ‘no job’ thing everyone seems to be having these days.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We’re going to have to fix that.  I’ve begun to changes everyone’s allowed skills so that we are able to work more efficiently.  I plan soon to order PychoAngel and Itel to enter the fortress and do some scouting work to see what’s down there.  We have no idea how dangerous whatever down there is, which means that it’s entirely possible the second we remove the floor the two military dwarves will be killed immediately.  It’s very brave of me to come up with a plan like this in the first place.  That’s in the future, though.  In the meantime, we have to get this fort up and running.

Journal of Asmel, 8 Sandstone, 1000

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We have settled into a rhythm.  I have stopped my mining and taken up bookkeeping and managing of the fortress.  I’ll also be a mechanic when we get more rock.  We also have laid Amoth to rest.  It wasn’t much of a funeral.  Most people were too busy working to attend.  I wasn’t working at the time, but I, once again, had more important things to be doing, like admiring a fine chair in the dining room while on my break.

Tilat, meanwhile, now has the masonry job enabled.  She isn’t actually a mason yet, though, because we don’t actually have any stone.  Degel, the other peasant from the migrant wave, is now a miner.  Everyone else has done what I’ve said they were doing before, or really whatever I tell them they should do.

The reason I’m writing this update, though, is that today, we are finally going to learn what we’re up against.  PychoAngel and Itel are ready.  On my order, the floor blocking fortress entrance is removed.  The two dwarves rush down.   On the surface, we begin to rebuild the floor, but do not complete it fully.  That way, if something goes wrong, we can reseal the entrance.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Events of 10 Sandstone, 1000

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

PychoAngel stopped.  Iton was behind her, still trying to catch her breath.  The two of them had descended nearly forty levels, and still, they had seen nothing at all.  The only sign of life the spiral staircase had was some moss growing on the floor they stood on.

“Good,” Iton thought.  She wondered if the others were wrong.  Maybe the screaming they heard was a weird problem with the wind.  Maybe there was nothing down here at all.  She had asked PychoAngel about this, but the commander had ignored the question.

PychoAngel looked back up.  “Alright,” she spoke, “Break’s over.  It’s time to keep moving.”  Apparently, you kill the only titan in the world in a duel and now you think you’re all that.  The commander ran down the staircase, with Iton struggling to follow.

The newer recruit wondered if they could actually win in a fight, especially now that they had tired themselves out.  Sure, they were armored fully in steel (besides Iton’s breastplate), but between the two of them, they didn’t have that much skill.  PsychoAngel’s two minute battle with the titan didn’t count.

The military commander stopped suddenly.  Iton, running and panting behind, nearly bumped into her.  They had entered a small hallway.  The stone all around them was smoothed.  Even in the darkness, Iton could tell that they had reached the main part of the fortress.  In front of them lie a single downward staircase.  The two dwarves walked towards it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Before they reached the stairs, however, PyschoAngel froze.  Iton started to ask what was wrong, but the other dwarf quickly covered her mouth, so she couldn’t speak.  PychoAngel pointed, just below the stairs, and Iton saw them.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Something else was wrong, though.  One of the creatures turned gently towards them, whispering.  At first, Iton couldn’t hear what the creature was saying.  Slowly, though, the creature slowly became louder and louder, until the dwarf could hear: “Iton.  Iton.  Iton.  Iton.  Iton.  Iton.  Iton.  Iton.  Iton.  Iton.  Iton.  Iton.  Iton.”

Iton, horrified, looked at the military commander.  The two dwarves waited, then slowly crept back towards the spiral staircase.  Once they felt they were far enough away, both began sprinting up, back to the layer with the cavern moss.  Another dwarf was there, building a floor over the downward ramp.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

With the floor built, the two military dwarves relaxed.  The creatures below could not get up.  They were safe, for now.  “How did they get out?” asked Iton.  “They can’t escape unless someone lets them out, and nobody was here to let them out before you guys!”  The dwarf began to panic again.

“I don’t know.  I just don’t know,” PsychoAngel replied.  “And calm down!  We need to get back to the surface.  We have to tell the others what we saw.”  The two dwarves rushed back without uttering one more word.

Journal of Asmel, 12 Sandstone, 1000

We now know what inhabits the fortress.  The screaming we heard, as we had feared, was a group of demons, who had somehow escaped Hell and into the underground.  We don’t know how, and we don’t know why, but somehow, they’re here.

After that, we all met in the dining hall to decide what we should do.  Kivish wanted to abandon the fortress.  He asked us if fighting demons was worth it to reclaim the fortress, and suggested that we abandon the area to build a new fortress somewhere else.  I told him that if we ever needed help with lye making, we would ask him.  We were going to make a decision that wasn’t entirely stupid.  He may have tried to start a fight after that, but a look from PychoAngel shut him down.

The military commander then went into greater detail about what she was down there.  They saw four demons.  Without a doubt, they know that we’re here.  One of them even began chanting Iton’s name.  For some reason, though, they did not attack.

For simplicity, I’ve posted each what each of the demons are below.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The first is an ankylosaurd devil.  Basically, picture a turtle.  Now, cover the turtle’s shell in sharp spikes.  Now give it feathers and wings so it can fly.  Make its tail as hard as rock so it has the ability to bludgeon anyone to death.  Also, it has a venomous bite.  Finally, make it giant and filled with the urge to destroy the world and murder everyone.  You know what?  Don’t picture a turtle.  This looks and acts nothing like one.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This one is easier to picture.  First, take a roc.  You know, the kind that are huge and murder everything in their path.  Take away its feathers and give it scales.  Now put mandibles around its beak.  This one, too, is poisonous.  You have successfully created a pterosaur demon!  Nice work, moron, you just created a pterosaur demon.

Finally, though, theyItel described the one-eyed brute.  The other two demons were merely giant, intelligent, evil dinosaurs who had unusual and more deadly feature.  You know, not very hard to kill.  The one eyed brute, now, is a true monster.  Normally the shape of a bird, it has a long, elephant-like trunk hanging from its beak.  This is the monster that new Iton’s name.  This is the most hideous, terrifying monster the world has ever seen:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It’s a lot like that, but even worse.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Behold! The monster of our time.  The bane of our existence.  This small, adorable bird from HELL is the deadliest creature this world has ever seen.  Its dust attack means melee combat is impossible.  It can fly, meaning we cannot outrun it.  Then there’s the whole, “I know your name and am going to whisper it seductively as I kill you,” bit.  To make it worse, PychoAngel said they saw two off this kind of demon.  Truly, there is no end to the terror. 

Now that a new floor has been built, we have about forty levels of demon free stone to work with.  Eventually, though, we are going to have to face the demons.  I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but I do know this: we will not run.  If we ran, the demons would somehow find a way to escape to the surface.  We will not hide, either.  Eventually, when we are ready, we will fight.  And once we begin to fight, we’re going to murder ALL the chickadees.

OOC: So, there’s what we’re up against.  Not a single demon we’ve seen so far is made of ash/snow/fire/sand, which means that they all are going to be extremely hard to kill.  Trust me, I’ve done some alternate universe testing, and every battle with even a single one eyed brute has ended with the entire fortress getting massacred.  It’s not going to be easy to retake the fortress, that’s for sure.  Also, I'm not sure why the demons didn't attack, but I'm not going to complain about it.

@Nep Nep:  I’m actually pretty glad something interesting happened quickly.  It might be a while before I feel confident enough to fight even one demon, not to mention the entire army of them.  Most of my other worlds sound more like yours; I only made this a community fortress because I thought it was really cool.

@De: Yep.  It’s a pocket world.  When I generated the world, I never intended for it to be a community game.  Normally, my crappy laptop can’t handle very large worlds for too long, which means smaller worlds are the best way to go.  It’s still pretty fun though, as generally pocket worlds with three megabeasts tend to kill off every civilization except for goblins, so we can expect a fair amount of sieges later on.

« Last Edit: November 22, 2015, 12:30:07 pm by TheCheeseMaker »
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As it turns out, pulling every lever in the fortress wasn't as good of an idea as it sounded like at the time.

Nep Nep

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Re: The Watchers: Siege of Axedipped (Community)
« Reply #14 on: November 21, 2015, 10:57:17 am »

Regarding the demons, the Turtle one seems like it would be the hardest because it seems like it has armor and such, whilst the pteuosaur seems like the easiest (I forgot if Skinless means being easier to kill, correct me if I'm wrong) seems like the easiest because it lacks other things and Poisonous bite isn't TOO bad, at least compared to Deadly dust or webs or spittle. The Chickadee is just plain scary, though.
My suggestion is to get metals and start training like crazy on your military so they have something of a chance.
EDIT: I just realized the Chickadee might be a really big threat, but my suggestion is to use Stupid Dwarf Tricks to knock the buggers unconscious and murder them that way, being Macgyver in these situations REALLY helps.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2015, 11:02:50 am by Nep Nep »
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Waluigi rushes to aid him, but not before warning Bowser, "Don't expect mouth-to-mouth!"
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