Short update this time, mostly to get the migrant wave and the caverns open, not much to do right now, all seems quiet.
Foton, Dohon, TheFlame52, Julien Brightside, and AuroranAI, your characters are up in the profile post at the start! For the record, please ignore any marriage links listed there, unless you want them incorporated to your character (no one has any surviving spouses or children ingame within the fort, at any rate). TheFlame52, if you want a different name or such, just tell me and I'll update the profile and ingame dwarf.
20th Sandstone 210 - AfternoonThe sound of picks against rock rang out across the fort, and as one got closer to the source, the grunting of dwarves was added to it. Nullius wiped the sweat from his forehead, running his hand through his beard. He and Stronghammer – occasionally joined by Elagn and Moony - had been working for almost a month now, carving a deep, central staircase that seemed to reach down without end into the earth.
It had been Stronghammer’s idea initially, the industry-minded dwarf unsatisfied with the state and the current prospects for Nomekast’s industry and mining. They were too few – both in numbers and in terms of miners – to do much in the way of prospective mining; while he’d had to suspend his wood-burning operation after Webb, Imic, and Moony had all complained that the smoke was making it impossible to breathe within the small rooms of Nomekast, and that what good was charcoal without any real ores to smelt anyway? The solution was simple of course. The humans among them were perhaps unaware, but all dwarves knew of the caverns that stretched beneath the very earth, the nexus of dwarven civilisation. Within, they’d find all that Nomekast would need to survive: plants, herbs, trees for wood, entire veins of metal visible in the walls, ripe for the harvesting and mining.
It was just the kick-start Nomekast’s industrial base needed. Nullius, student of all dwarven crafts, had been easy to enlist the aid of, while Elagn and a rather grumpy Moony had been brought round to helping them with the promise of actual metals that Elagn and Moony could use for the mechanisms, work, and research they both specialised in. Besides them, Frederick and occasionally Imic stood watch in turns, weapon in hand. Caverns could be dangerous, especially unknown ones in unsettled regions, so far from dwarven civilisation. It could only be hoped there were no nests of particularly vicious beasts, or worse yet: goblin roads beneath.
Currently, Frederick and Imic were seated on some excavated boulders to the side, conversing deeply about something Nullius only caught a few words of but seemed to be a discussion about their respective homeland to the east. The pair had bonded quite well over the past few months, it seemed, being both nobility from lost kingdoms - Frederick the youngest heir to one, Imic the lord of a now lost town. Occasionaly, Stronghammer offered a grunting observation of his own, recalling his own lost mountainhome he'd been a citizen of. Nullius himself stayed silent for the better part. He'd always been a better listener than speaker, and was too engrossed in his task, observing the cracks in the gneiss rock he was excavating as his pickaxe slammed into it again and again.
A sharp intake of breath from Stronghammer interrupted his musings, followed by what felt like a breeze wafting around the stairwell, making the torches flicker. "Here!" Stronghammer began hammering almost feverishly with his pick, repeating his words. "Here!" The rock face came down as he worked fast, caving in as it was undermined. Along with it came part of the floor, the fresh - compared to what they were used to here - air of a cavern wooshing up, the sights of rock pillars in a dark mire reflecting the cavern light and of gently swaying pillars of fungiwood and tower-cap trees. Stronghammer almost fell with the floor, and it was only the quick reflexes of Imic and Nullius that held him back, the group of them staring into that revealed underground world.
28th Sandstone - 210 - Early MorningFoton scanned the horizon, the dwarf running his hand through a beard that had become rather dirt-matted during the journey. Besides him, Vagrask Steelpint likewise looked over the landscape, an inscrutable look on his face. It was hard to see much, the vague outlines of the hills in the distance, a few trees closer to them, the morning fog covered most and obscured details. The others remained behind, sat down and resting a few moments. Their little group of five had spent weeks traversing the region together now, avoiding not just the Nothing that seemed to plague the entire world, but also the goblin patrols of the Disloyalty of Chains.
Right now though, the area seemed completely devoid of either enemies - at least where they could see. "I don't like it," Vagrask murmured, "too easy to ambush us."
"Would be the first time these monsters have tried tactics like ambushing."
"Aye, but they don't have to be planning it, this fog is cover enough for any manner of creature to try it."
"And where is this place?" came a grunt from behind. Dammaz moved up to them, the sullen, withdrawn dwarf looking over the landscape too. He was perhaps the quietest of their group, they really only knew his name, he'd refused to divulge more than that. They hadn't probed, everyone had a story in these times.
"Not far, I think if we move over to that hill we might even be able to see it-"
"And you say this place is the safest fortress to stay?" Jule Brighteye spoke up now, running one hand through his hair and watching the horizon wearily.
Foton drew his lips together in a tight expression, giving a small shrug. "Not as such. At least, as much as any hidden fortress can keep us safe. But it is the closest one, and there are no nobles. That alone will ensure our safety more than any old mountainhome where the dregs of nobility call back the guards to defend their gilded vaults rather than the people." Dammaz and Vagrask seemed about to speak, but he interrupted them with a "Let's go", motioning to their final companion to join them and beginning to trek down the steep sides of the hill.
The grass and slopes were still damp with the morning dew, which coupled with the fog made their progress slow to avoid slipping down and risking injury - or worse, being attacked. Soon enough though, they reached the base of the hills, and soon the river.
"Follow it down, we should be able to see it on our left," Foton told the others, voice quiet while the fog roiled around them, the entire area silent except for themselves and the sounds of water coursing through the river.
"Eyes...eyes!" Jule's voice came up loud and urgent, the dwarf pointing to the other side of the river. Half-hidden in the fog, they could see dark shapes shifting, undulating. More worrying, pairs of red eyes occasionally glanced their way, pitiless and shining through the mist.
"Nothing! Get moving!" Vagrask called, sprinting forward. The Nothing did not move though, remaining on their side of the river, seemingly uninterested in the dwarves they could not reach.
For now.
To their left, the walls of Nomekast drew up, pitiful compared to those of a mountainhome, yet seeming like the greatest bastion of safety yet seen at the moment. Their voices rose up as they came up to the fort's entrance, a small moat keeping them from the walls. For a while, there was no response, and it seemed that the inhabitants had no one on lookout, before a head poked up from the wall, hazy in the fog, but clearly not a dwarf, clinging spider-like to the wall. The figure seemed to regard them for a while, before dropping back down. A few hushed voices were heard before the drawbridge shuddered to life and lowered with the groan of gears moving stone, and the five of them fled into the safety of Nomekast.
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Topic: [Community] Nomekast - Nothing Remains (Read 9643 times)