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Author Topic: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)  (Read 236274 times)

Sir Knight

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1305 on: March 12, 2020, 09:26:47 am »

This artwork is indeed interesting; if these changes make working faster and make you more comfortable, then great.

A delight to read as always.  I don't seem to have inspiration for a replacement "me," still, so I won't request one right now.
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Cathar

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1306 on: March 23, 2020, 05:30:52 am »

So....here's the deal. Fall and winter have been played. The problem is, there is not much thing happening in fall, and in winter, we lose two important characters, one of them being Toki (surprize for the other one...theres also a lot of unimportant character death too).
So what I propose now, is if you people have an idea to flesh out a bit the fall update, please do share so we can spend a bit more time with the characters before they go. Toki and the other character will get a comic page during winter's update detailing their death

Haspen

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1307 on: March 23, 2020, 08:47:18 am »

Make up descriptions of happy parties and lovely fall festivals, so that there will be greater contrast between easy fall and totally macabre winter :)
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HakuryuVision

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1308 on: March 23, 2020, 11:27:30 pm »

Honestly?
Considering how the lives of fortress citizens in DF usually go, i think my human lived a good life.
She was a central figure of her settlement, became a master wood crafter, a legendary appraiser, and married a big dwarf-looking guy (who also was the expidition leader for a while).

...i'm just a little nervous about learning HOW she met her end.

Haspen

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1309 on: March 24, 2020, 01:00:15 am »

1. She fell down a well and drowned.
2. She got in a tantrum fight with a kid and lost.
3. She had to spend time in hospital, was forgotten and died of thirst.

Pick one :P
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Cathar

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1310 on: March 24, 2020, 08:43:12 am »

It's...a bit of the three. It has to do with water, a kid, and being out of sight for a solid ten seconds. I'm not saying more for now tho. It's not a lolrandom death if it can reassure you... tho clearly it was inevitable.

I have a couple ideas on how to portray it, also I will write a small biography for the character, who also was the link between Kimaeslo Ori and the merchant guild, so she has kingdom wide importance

I'll still make a picture/ comic page for fall and post the next update during the week

Sir Knight

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1311 on: March 28, 2020, 06:37:10 pm »

He he he, good to know that death is weird as usual.

Are there, in fact, cultural dances and stuff that could be done in the fall?  (Pretending to have "fall celebrations" sounds like a good idea.)
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Cathar

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1312 on: April 04, 2020, 05:14:07 pm »

Fall 148

Last season was pretty wild for the people of the Aconilun. With the attack on Osme professional army, the rampage of the Ettin Mishtem, and the news that the sky dwarfs began their counter attack – as unsuccessful as they were – an omminous ambiance fell on the bridgetown. Something was about to happen and needed to be guarded against...but what ?

Fresh recruits were incorporated in the squads and sent to training, and Ozi, a young kind who had yet to find a profession (incidentally he was Scribe Lastret's son and Flame's older brother), was chosen to be trained as the next coppersmith. He was also send to hone his skills.

The death of Dengusa left a gap in the skills of the Aconilun. The townspeople sure had the copper and the bronze, but without a good smith, they would mostly go to waste. In the future, the establishment of a smithing guild would be a worthwile investment. In the meantime, small civilian weapons were forged for the commerce with elves next spring, and copper and bronze mail were woven, to be added in addition to leather for the troops. Forging enough of them however will take a lot of time.


Ebkusa's gear is a good representation of what the common Aconilun soldiers wears in year 148

Fall was calm – as usual. There are usually no event schlechulded to this time of the year, and as a result, people take the opportunity to unwind and relax. There was however some events worthy of note happening.



First of all, our jaguar couple got cubs. One male and one female. This is perfect for the brood to keep growing, as our male was permanentely wounded during the Ettin hunt. According to our animal caretaker, those warbeasts take a year to fully mature – if we can keep at least a male and two females until then, we can start thinking about replacing our dogs by those killing machines.

Secondly, Sana, daughter of late Ari-Taskmo, came of age and was given a job as a stoneworker and sent to apprenticeship. However, as she went in the undergrounds tunnel to start carving bricks, she found the posts already occupied by older workers and told to come back later.

Her mother got her a pick of excellent quality, so she could start to contribute right away.



While I don't understand the joy people have working hard and difficult professions, I would not dissuade the effort. Her subsequent work helped us quite a lot.

The current project consist of another nine meter wide bridge between the two shores. Once they are done, the bridges would be linked together and serve as a support to build the actual Aconilun castle, that would rule not only over Kimaeslo Ori, but over the whole area. Such project requires a lot of effort and good will.

That's about all that happened during fall. With everything that happened since the beggining of the project, the people of the bridgetown learnt to value their uneventful times.



May they continue.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Winter 148
Music

The life of Stukos Tostcatten

Even tho proximity with goblin empires make abductions a common occurrence in the dwarven kingdom of Kodsakzul, Stukos' stories took that to an almost comical extreme. He was born in year 104 in Lorbarakmesh, a nothern hillock. In 109, his mother was abducted by a Moon Horror – a blotted waxy humanoid with three tails, leaving him, his father and his siblinghood totally horrified. The small family then moved to Lazineth – another smaller hillock, closer to the frontline, during his childhood.

It was in year 114 that Stukos was abducted by an Osmite child snatcher, and groomed to become an footsoldier. Two years later, his father was himself abducted by a night troll.

When Stukos reached adulthood, both his parents were already transformed into monsters. It made sense that he would become one aswell, by working in the imperial army. That was his reasonning if he had put it into words. It didn't made too much sense, but from all he knew, it was the decision fate had made for him ; as he experienced, running from his fate would just make it happen anyway.

He became a competent marksman, then joined the retinue of another abductee turned small lord, a dwarven woman by the name of Ingish, and so he was for the next 35 years of his life.

35 years that would not, in the end, be so bad . No hard work and no army service – working as a retained had its perks. It was only in this winter 148 that his services would finally be called upon, as his lady decided to move against Kimaeslo Ori.



Never having seen any real fight, Stukos was horrified by the open graveyard in front of him. He ran behind the troop and it took several hours to calm him down. It was a small retinue of eight fighting men – that couldn't afford to just lose one of its member to irrational fear.

When it was done, they resumed their march and arrived in view of the bridge.

« Kimaeslo Ori is just behind that bridge » Ingish said. « We cross it, we loot and we go back »

Stukos noticed the thirty armed silhouettes of the town's militia in the distance.

« Perfect ! » he exclaimed as Ingish's retinue started its advance, loading his crossbow. « Let's go ! I'll cover you from behind »

When Hauben's troop encircled them and torn them to pieces as it was expected, Stukos was already very, very far.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The Mountain God
Sketug Jumpmist the Whiskered

Humans live a very short life. Among the creatures that need to bond and organize into culture to even survive, they life is the very shortest, which makes their chance to individually witness anything the lowest of all.
That is why the transmission of knowledge is the most important. Before the invention of writing, orale tradition was the only available medium. But like human lives, it was a meek and unreliable method – everything relying on it might as well just have been lost.

Today, no one remember why there are Old Gods – what do they want, why they were worshipped, or why people slowly replaced their worship by new religion full of invisible deities.

Every once in a while, they leave their ancestral home to wreck havoc in the world of humans.



The Mountain Titan Stekug Stoxusguslo has come!  A huge hairy spider.  It has large mandibles and it moves deliberately.  Its dark brown hair is long and shaggy.  Beware its poisonous bite!

Sketug had to cross the whole country to come here.  That antic monster had a reputation of being extremely goal oriented, and doing everything with an extreme sense of purpose. There must have been a reason why he attacked Kimaeslo Ori...but why ?

He jumped into the main street in the middle of panicked citizen. Alert was given, and the army started to cross the bridge. They were too far however, and Sketug had already started to cover the whole street in gross webbing, and picking the panicked citizen one by one.

In desperation, Lady Sug herself went outside. We don't know what she was hoping to accomplish. Probably was she trying to barter time ?



Seing their lady on the brink of being eaten alive, citizen bursted out of the tavern and of the farmer's guild, improvized weapons in hand and stormed the gigantic monster.

Toki tried to organize the retreat of the townspeople – she was hoping to free the way for the eventual arrival of the militia. She locked as many people as she could inside the farmer's guild office.

The epic fight that ensued took a toll in the townspeoples numbers. Lady Sug herself did not survive. Often, the bodies were disfigured by Sketug's bite and poison –  and could not be recognized. When the creature finally died, people had to be rounded up and identified so proper burials could be made.

« Ica is missing, it seems » someone said. « Ica, is Ica here ? »

No answer from Ica. He was about to be pronounced dead, but someone raised their hand.

« I saw him ! He fled to the bridge during the attack. Surely he's still alive »

And before anyone could add anything, Toki already went to investigate.

Both are still missing to this day.


« Last Edit: April 04, 2020, 05:18:19 pm by Cathar »
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Splint

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1313 on: April 04, 2020, 08:37:15 pm »

The cub on the left looks like it's trying so hard to be threatening and it's not working. They came out looking good.

Might be a good idea to make a note of where those two fell through the ice for next winter if they're anywhere remotely close to the bridge - the bodies might spook people walking by if there's nothing to block the view in the river while they work.

HakuryuVision

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1314 on: April 06, 2020, 05:03:49 pm »

Welp, there she goes. Encased in ice.
Just how most of my adventurers end up whenever i try to train swimming.

At least she died trying to save someone else.
Curse those delicacies old gods!

Still, thanks for having me human'd in your fort! : D

-by the way, that short story about Stukos was quite interesting.

Sir Knight

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1315 on: April 08, 2020, 10:03:44 am »

I . . . see . . . cultural dances!

Also, to date I have never had a webslinging titan/forgotten beast enter my forts.  Got one as an adventurer, and that was bad enough.  But my understanding is that the parade of destruction is a sight to behold.

Could you explain the status on the bridge project?  So there is a functional bridge, but it's being expanded by making another section of bridge next to it.  Do you intend to use the space to put buildings over the water itself?
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Cathar

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1316 on: April 09, 2020, 09:02:23 am »

For Toki, I'm sorry :( Everyone dies currently. Toki especially hurts because she had an important job she was good at, and she had an unbreakable mood. Replacing her will be very hard. She always had a crew of traders with her, so I suppose one of them should come next.
As for hiding the bodies from view...the two of them are still declared missing. I don't think people will see them anytime soon, I already engraved their slabs.

As for cultural dances, that's the Meandering Larks, probably the most important form of dance from Mong Kima. It originated as a military dance, similar to russian's cossack dance. It's danced in lines, as two musicians strike a rapid rythm on a stone drum (secen), accompanied with a kind of ceramic bagpipe (dothan). It's danced in group, in line and consists mostly of rythmic jumps with extended legs and body rotations. I assumed it was originally made to keep soldiers in shape during peaceful times because it's highly physical, from description alone.

As for the bridge : yes. We're building a fortress on the bridge, above the water. The bridge is functionnal as it, but I feel that stopping now would be a huge waste of opportunity. Even if the situation is dire, we have a lot of helpful circumstances that we might not be able to replicate elsewhere, starting with an access to stone and the cavern layers. The idea is to slowly expend the bridge, adding buildings to it, and eventually open the doors to new migrants when we have houses for them. On the bridge. We're making a litteral bridge-town.

Spring has been played but as been uneventful, so I'll skip it and just write trivias about the buildings and the evolving organization, unless you have ideas for small stories to tell - I'd be happy to illustrate them

Cathar

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1317 on: May 02, 2020, 11:12:47 am »

Spring 149

The attack of Sketug, last year, left the bridgetown quite shaken. Not only a lot of townfolk were killed and had to be burried in a hurry, but the attack also claimed the life of Lady Sug. With that and the disappearance of Toki, a power vacuum was left at the head of the council. Who should succeed to her ? Would Jalew – her husband – fit in the role maybe ? The old man, busy writing down the knowledge he acquired during his rather long life, declined the proposition. Her children were far away, too young or unwilling.

Among people who proposed themselves, one man stood a bit above the others.



He was a ex-mercenary bowman who came in Kimaeslo Ori to start a new life, with Kothvir, his wife and his only son, Githa. Kothvir was among the militia casualties of the massive Osmite assault of year 148, leaving him to raise his two year old kid by himself. Regardless, Kothvir was among the citizen who threw themselves at Sketug, the god-spider, in order to save Lady Sug.

Maybe later, a new and better fitting lord will appear in the population, but for now, Sive was the best pick. He was then named Regent and would take care of the administration of the bridgetown for the time being.

His first decree was to surround the town in solid stone walls, so as to prevent another surprize attack from the eastern side of the bridge. A ten meter tall stone arch would mark the entrance of the village, and a small militia would need to be outfited to guard this chokepoint.



Altho this took building ressouces away from the construction of the bridge, it sounded like a sensible decision in the aftermart of Sketug's rampage.

Commerce with the elves happened, but was rather unremarkable. We mostly exchanged wax and bone crafts against fuel and big cats, adding a male leopard to our roster. If we can start a new breeding program in the future, that wouldn't be a bad thing – tho Leos are smaller than Jaguars, everything is good to take in our current state.



Summer 149

After the construction of the protective wall around the village, the construction of the bridge resumed. The craftmen's guild petitionned the town to have a room to gather and train, and it was decided this building would be the first to be built on the bridge itself. In a month, the first floor was finished and the town started to produce decoration to make the place fitting for a guild.

After the construction of this guildhall, it was thought, the next logical step would be to build a dungeon proper on the bridge. Something where all the town council could live and discuss the order of the day. The blue manor, built in the early days, was functionnal, but the people of Kimaeslo Ori could do much better, much bigger. Surely, when it is done, the old manor could become some kind of temple, or a hall of justice to judge and punish criminals – and to train the police force.

The war in the north still continues, it seems. The dwarves of Bomrek-Laltur managed to secure themselves some breathing room by chasing away the Osmite troops, and are now laying siege to the city of Dongusmu, the capitale city of an increasingly desperate Empire of Ansgek.

The empire of Ansgekstozu will probably not recover. The armies of Osmestobϋb and Bomrek-Laltur, although they sometime bumb disharmoniously against each other, are currently experiencing a feeding frenzy on the remnants of what once was the dominating empire in the North.

Too small to do anything one way or the other, the kingdom of Kima can only watch things unfold.

In other news, the dwarven kingdom of Dezor Uzol – the sky dwarves – attacked Thomocemir again. Commender Pathril met them in the field. One of their officer was killed, three other imprisonned with no pearlite life lost. The attacks seem to come from a small hillock on the nothern shores of the interior sea. Maybe later, it could be worthwile to go and conquer the place.

The main happening of the summer came in the end of July, when Uquur's merchants came into town. Unbeknown to us, they were stalked by a creature of the night – a creature that we tried to save for a long time of its fate, unsucessfully.



It was Valken, who managed to flee his prison In Thomocemir some years before. As we found out earlier, he even married a barkeeper in a neighbouring dwarven fortress. We hoped that it would mark the end of his rampage and that he could live a happy life with wife and children... but now we had no choice anymore.

The trader came in town, following the now paved main road, and put their caravan in the marketplace. They did however warned us of their predicament, and the streets emptied as the alarm bell rang.

Too late – the monster was already sprinting into the streets. He grabbed a child and after some back and forth, managed to bit his leg. The town was horrified.



A copper arrow shot by our only hunter -Ramet, an expert crossbowman - broke the grip of the monster. The guild's mercenaries closed in and surrounded the wounded beast and lashed out on it. Soon enough, it was over.



After examination, the bite did not draw blood on the leg of the kid. Maybe that was it. Maybe the curse of Pasmug would be ended once and for all.

We could only hope.





When the morning came and the town woke up, the corpse of Bannic was retrived near the inn. Cursary investigation seem to indicate mundane criminality. The police force is now looking for the murderer.

Strange times, indeed, when mundane criminals can do more damages than cursed monsters.

« Last Edit: May 02, 2020, 11:18:19 am by Cathar »
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Splint

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1318 on: May 02, 2020, 11:35:07 am »

Place your bets on a bloodsucker folks, or stealthy night beast.

Or a missed combat log from an angry citizen cleaning Bannic's clock with punch to the temple.

TheFlame52

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Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls
« Reply #1319 on: May 02, 2020, 11:39:06 am »

It's back!
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