Things turn very sour as my reign nears its end. As if to herald the doom soon to come, chanting begins to echo upwards from the deepest pits up Hell. Ceaseless, senseless chanting, singing the glories of some dark place I've never heard of. Through day and night this litany of evil carries through our fortress and assaults the senses. At considerable risk to my own sanity I have tried to listen in, and transcribe this dark chorus of the underworld.
OOOOOH CAAANADA
OUR HOME AND NATIVE LAND
The endless distraction makes me irritable and short-fused. Cocky. To top it off, a flaw in my previous assault (beyond the death of my older sister) is realized.
Because the dwarves could not get to the caverns through the minecart track, I assumed the demons could not get in. But they can fly and we can't. A previously unnoticed hole in the shaft is discovered when a snail fiend butchers a Mawile and a small child.
The militia, hastily deployed, easily kills the lumbering beast.
But it makes me nervous. There are still a lot of demons in the caverns, and I don't want to be constantly watching my back like this. I begin devising a plan to kill off the remaining demons and take back our fort for good.
Meanwhile - Stungin! For a second time this year! That cheers me up a little.
The royal palace is finally complete! The dining room is centered around the priceless artifact table - you can see the queen going for lunch in this photo. The king is having a snooze in the bedroom and the outpost liaison (useless bugger) is sleeping in the side wing of the palace I dedicated to him. The mausoleum is to the south - I had big sister Astesh buried there with full honours.
One of the statues in particular makes me shed a tear of joy. I can't imagine a better tribute to our glory.
Dear Kadol... dead now, but not forgotten. Also impressive are a statue of Beirus admiring a halberd and a statue of TheImmortalRyukan killing a Boiling Banshee.
And here's a statue I commissioned myself to commemorate the battle our brave Probopass fought in the corridor.
Still not feeling entirely welcome in the palace, I turn my attentions downwards again.
The demons might seem to have all the advantages over us they might want. They're massive, and they're dangerous fighters. Some breath fire and some spin webs. But our advantage is mobility. Redmagecole trapped them in small enclaves and pockets to be taken care of individually, while we can tunnel to wherever in the caverns we want to.
The tunnel-and-ambush strategy having worked so well against the Snail Fiends earlier, I decide to try it again on a slightly larger scale. A group of four Kite Fiends is located on the side of a pillar, and digging begins.
I stand ready for the ambush, confident but still a little daunted by the task in front of us. Nopal stands at the stairs, polishing the bismuth bronze axe he's so attached to. TheImmortalRyukan wields a masterwork adamantine axe and Zefermcdwarfpants a masterwork copper sword. I heft my trusty spear as my squad-mates troop into the pillar.
Beirus's absence feels wrong, but I made the decision to leave his squad to its training. While Beirus is our finest warrior, his pupils are still green recruits. If I ordered The Weedle Attacks in, many of them would die senselessly.
And with all of us here, as well as the Queen's bodyguards, we shouldn't have any trouble... right?
The pillar is opened, the first Kite Fiend charges, and Nopal and TheImmortalRyukan rush to meet it. Nopal begins hacking away at the creature, hobbling it and slicing off its trunk. Then suddenly disaster strikes, a lucky hit from the demon crushing Ryukan's skull.
Nopal and I gasp in shock to see our friend fall. And the Kite Fiend is still coming. I got careless after all the easy victories and forgot just how deadly demons could be - the monster in front of us is no sorry Snail Fiend.
Nopal keeps fighting, and more of us come down the stairs to back him up. But something goes wrong. He dodges a swing from the beast, and rolls away deftly. But his roll takes him away from our phalanx, with the Kite Fiend cutting him off from the rest of us.
And that's when two more Kite Fiends rear their ugly heads and attack. Cut off from help, Nopal begins bravely fighting the two monsters while the first one crushes the head of one of our human mercenaries.
This is disastrous. Two dead already and all four Kite Fiends still standing. And poor Nopal fighting for his life while we try in vain to fight our way past the beast in front of us.
Finally the beast - named Nitigingtak after slaying Ryukan - falls. I look up, spear raised -
And my heart is torn from my chest.
I watch Nopal's last moments, shocked and filled with grief. It was thanks to his antics that living in Pocketball was even tolerable. And he's been here since the start. Since before I was. He was truly the best of us.
We charge forward to attack, but we are betrayed by our lack of wings. I had hoped to lure the demons into the dugout like I did last time, but now we're fighting at the edge of a cliff. A macedwarf is slain and four other soldiers either stumble off or are hurled off the precipice.
The Blastoise in front of me lets out a torrent of deadly water from its cannons, but one kick from the towering demon turns the mighty Pokemon into a crushed ruin.
And I suddenly realize that I am alone.
I look up at the behemoth in front of me. It bleeds and limps from a dozen or more wounds, but looks towards me with malice.
As I look into its taunting eyes I realize... it knows. It knows that all this death is my fault. Nopal, Ryukan, Zinga... If I hadn't gotten cocky, underestimated these demons, they would still be alive. We could have simply left the monsters to hunt the caverns in peace. But my pride and overconfidence has brought me here, alone, with an eldritch monstrosity slavering for my blood.
I charge, spear in hand. In the back of my head I know I'm not going to survive. And... maybe I don't deserve to.
I turn my thoughts to the battle, and put Nopal and Ryukan out of my mind. There's no need to feel vengeful - anger makes you foolish. I cripple the beast's wing with my spear even as it tears my toe off, toying with me in a slow, torturous manner. I ignore the pain and pierce its lung, my adamantine spear biting deep. This is my doing, there can be no turning back. If I let it past more will die.
I have a part in this.
I sink my spear into the beast once more. It will not get past me. I cannot just stand by.
Then it catches my arm in its jaws, venom flowing and blood gushing, and tears it from its socket. I surrender to the merciful sleep awaiting me.
My soul free of my broken body, I watch the crippled beast drag itself past me. I feel Armok's hand pulling me away, but resist. I need to see what happens.
Zefermcdwarfpants and Kadol the mace lord, late for the fight, throw themselves at the monster. Despite the many it injuries it has sustained from Nopal, myself, and others, the monster - Bardumast - tears Zefer to pieces. It seems unstoppable, a juggernaut sent by Giratina itself to bring ruin to Pocketball. Kadol keeps fighting, losing his shield arm to the beast's tearing jaws.
Then the humblest of dwarves, a simple Fish Cleaner, does what all of us could not. He bravely throws himself at the immortal terror, and it falls from the cliff. It flaps its crippled wing weakly as it falls, then is smashed to pieces on the cold stone floor.
Those soldiers that had fallen from the cliff had been fighting their own battle. All four had survived the drop, but had been set upon by Snail Fiends. The Snail Fiends all lay butchered and dead, though, at the cost of two more warriors.
So with Bardumast's death the battle was won. But at a terrible cost.
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Topic: The World of Dwarvemon - Succession Fortress of Pocketball (ENDED) (Read 60118 times)