Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: 1 ... 106 107 [108] 109 110 111

Author Topic: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)  (Read 240317 times)

Cathar

  • Bay Watcher
  • Competent Engraver
    • View Profile
    • My shit
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1605 on: May 25, 2023, 02:01:40 pm »

Fall 157
Doom falls on the capitale


For a season that did not know Osmite invasion, it was surpizingly combat-heavy. A lot of things happened – and as we will see in that report, we seem to sail through the storm more easily than through calm waters.

Early projects

September started rather peacefully. After the capture of Azstrogstram, the town wanted to settle down and recover, reconstitute its forces and keep the war effort at a slower pace. Notable efforts were deployed to clean up the battlefield in the western side of the town – considerable effort with the number of bodies accumulated since the fundation of the city. This effort took the whole city – everyone went to the outskirt to lend a hand in that ungrateful task. Undressing the bodies, picking up decayed severed limbs, braving the swarms of flies to bag the liquefying corpses and transporting the sinister load to the trash compactor where they were disposed of.
That effort was made necessary by the project of expanding the town to the western side of the sea – but also to secure all the metal we can to produce more gear for the war effort.

Ultimately, this is the transformation the town is based around : transformiung wood and metal into gear, transforming gear and manpower into victories. All the rest, the trade, the craft, the culture, the hierarchies, the crafts of various sorts – are all subordinate to that main transformation, pushing toward the end of war.

In the meantime, urban development was also conducted in the west – the old barracks were upgraded, with the long term goal to transform them into an archery platform, with a ballista on ground floor, and a first floor dedicated to Histamine’s crowwbowmen so they can be used defensively. Roads were also planned in three cardinal directions to help the merchants to reach the town. Gates and walls were also planned so it would not come at the cost of the town’s defensive capacity.


Unwelcome guest
The evening of the 21 september, as a handful of new migrants came into town, we were pretty much extatic – we need more manpower to replenish our squads, and we need more hands to clear the western end of town.

However, a routine verification of the identity of the migrants threw the swornmen into a frenzy.
Most of them were totally unremarkable – mostly farmers from neighbouring villages. Two of them came from Thomocemir, but were similarly unremarkable be it by their skills or patrimony.

But one of them threw the alarm immediately ; he had the reddish skin of a man from Xakedgil – he was around thirty years old, but his hair was white as snow. This alone was enough to give the swornmen the certitude that he was a vampire – but that was not all ! On his head, a crown made out of human hair. And above all, during his travels, he mentionned to his companions that he was married to a woman by the name of Stran « Little Sadness »… a vampire we slain in Thomocemir.

He claimed his name was « Thep », that was of course a pseudonym – his real name was Mudung, a 120 years old vampire from Xakedgil.


Yeah we’re not letting you free-roaming in town, buddy


Mudung was locked in a sealed room inside the upper mine. In time, we will give cure him of vampirism through the treatment we gave his wife back sixteen years ago – in the meantime, he can rot in his room. We might find a use for him – if not, we have an eternity to dispose of him.

When we have a bit more time, we might interrogate him – or find another use. So far, we have not considered anything besides locking him up to preserve our population.

Amxuespo falls

September came and went. With october, the military brass decided to capitalize on the momentum gained in late August – our objective was to capture two more villages before the winter.

Considering the terrain, our grand offensive strategy practically wrote itself – we had to take all osmite villages, one after the other until we reach fort Stustonako. After that… we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Our assault tactics of storming their villages with heavy mobile infantry then rotating in lighter formations having proven effective so far, we decided to replicate it in our next target, the village of Amxuespo.

The first clash happened in the 11th of october. The village was protected by a handful of professional soldiers – mostly crossbowmen – reinforced by conscripts. In total, 13 souls. Islas’ heavy mobile infantry and Histamine’s tactic squad made very short work of them.

The 21 of october, Anthil’s light infantry was rotated in and took control of the village. Two remaining fighters, who were exercising noble functions between the first and the second assault, were executed for their effots : the new lord was drown, and his commander was beheaded.

Kimaeslo Ori rejoiced of that success ; as unsurprizing as it was, and immediately made preparations to push the conquest forward.



Underground duel

Celebrations went however very shot lived. Two days after the fall of Amxuespo, Kimaeslo Ori was woken up by tremors coming from deep underground.


It was no earthquake

Osman, an old god, had just woken up deep inside the earth and was quickly making his way to the surface. He happened upon the old pearlite mine, and the creature, although its sapience was still unclear, understood the mine to be the shortest path.
The large mass of gemstone crossed the drowned mine without problem, then squirmed his way through the old tunnels.

When we heard the death screams of the moor vagrants who had taken shelter in the mine’s lower levels, we could not ignore the creature any longer.

We deployed Islas’ the heavy mobile infantry, Princeling Sothro’s medium infantry and the swornmen to deal with it.

The first to arrive at the scene was Izem Konzekonli, Princeling Sothro’s right hand man – large man with a distinctly square jaw and a wide body. He was wearing a medium armor, and was armed with Kerlebero, a blade of pearl-iron -all considered not the best gear to face such a foe.

Three mine-dwelling vagrants were already slain, it was too late for them. But itw as still time to prevent the monster from reaching the surface.

Against an enemy so large in a corridor so tight, waiting for reinforcements would have been pointless. He gathered his courage and engaged the old god.

With all the strenght he could muster, he hacked into the mineral body of the monster, which emited loud cracks after each blow. The creature squirmed and wriggled independently of the fight, visibly insensible to pain, causing the underground corridors to vibrate, causing a rain of dirt.

After a lucky shot on the creature’s leg, Izem managed to jump on Osman’s back


The creature contorted itself and Izem lost his footing – reflexively, he swong his blade in the cristalline monster and grpped it with the energy of despair. Izem’s strenght and gravity combined almost split the old god in two in a sheaf of gemstone fragments.


The bodies of the three slain mine-dwellers were recovered and destroyed to prevent miasmas in the caves – and to mbstones with their names were added to the underground memory hall.

As for Izem, he was treated as a hero as he came back to the surface, victorious. We’re considering bethrowing him to Lady Desli after that remarkable feat of arms.

Massacre at Ngebzoreko

Next on our path to Fortress Sustonako was the small hamlet of Ngebzoreko – diminutive settlement of no more than a dozen souls. At this time, we still had one light infantry squad to expand – Anthil’s squad.

Due to the absence of a professional fighting force in the hamlet and to its diminutive size, it was decided not to operate our rotation tactic and to send directly Anthil’s men to capture the settlement.

It was our hope that the residents of Ngebzoreko would recognize immediatly that the situation was desperate and would lie down their arms without resistance and save us a lot of time.

Which they did… however, Anthil’s squad was not as professional as we may have wished. The inhabitants of the hamlet were all captured, tortured and slain – two were drown, one was burried alive, another was burned at the stake.

We do not condone the acts of barbarism even when they are conducted by pearlites. Even though we are still far behind Osme in war criminality in this conflict, we have to remind ourselves that they are the monsters – not us – and we should act accordingly.

We’ll train our occupation squads so such incident is not emulated further.

In those circumstances, Ngebzoreko falls under our control the 8 november.


We are still outnummered 3 to 5, but the difference is reducing after each assault

In the meantime, we have no more light infantry to expand in offensives until further notice. We have to painstakingly wind up our next blow by training and gearing up the next wave.

Our next target is the twin village of Ngomzolak and Spugkadkustmob – of about one hundred souls each, we estimate we need two half-squads to occupy them.
Starting next season, we’ll try to scour the population for mobilization candidates – but we will recquire more migration as our population is dropping dangerously.

Icgilmater the Esteemed Star is killed

After the assaults were conducted, the town set itself to a lower tempo – everything that needed to b done was done, the war agenda had advanced furiously this season, the old battlefield was almost cleaned of corpses and the gear production continued steadily. We expected a calm but productive end of season, followed by a tranquil winter spent re-fattening the town.

A week after the capture of Ngebzoreko however, we received the visit of yet another unwelcome guest.


Icgilmater « The Esteemed Star » was a cyclop older than civilisation, that was used to raid Osmite properties and devour its population. It has been attacking Bosangasma, Osmestobûb capitale city, for over 150 years.

Our progression in the south would have attracted his attention -the 15th of November, he appeared near the town.

He soon noticed  the beach dwelling vagrants and made a straight line to them – he took especially interest in that elven girl by the name of Vinena. Immediately, we scrambled every fighter at our disposition and threw them against the monster.

We couldn’t save the poor souls in the mine, but we would not let those in the outskirt die.



Luckily for us, unlike Osman, Icgilmater was made of flesh – it was soon charged from all sides by heavily armed weapon masters and easily slain.

Abuth, a member of Totten’s command squad, is the one credited for the deathblow with her bronze morningstar.

I see after verifying that Abuth is Anthil’s wife… I don’t like separating couples, so we might recall her husband from Ngebzoreko soon.
At least in those circumstances, the exploits of the wife lessen a bit the infamy of the husband.

Vinena suffered an injury to her shoulder after endring Icgilmater’s abuse, but we believe she’ll be fine.


« Last Edit: May 31, 2023, 03:38:28 am by Cathar »
Logged

Splint

  • Bay Watcher
  • War is a valid form of diplomacy.
    • View Profile
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1606 on: May 25, 2023, 04:01:05 pm »

Man the town's looking super nice as time goes on! Makes me want to pick up the game again a bit.

Also kinda makes me imagine "pearl-iron" as a human-made version of steel using sea shells and such for flux instead of calcium-based stone. Might be a neat little thing to add for modding something someday.

TheFlame52

  • Bay Watcher
  • Master of the randomly generated
    • View Profile
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1607 on: May 25, 2023, 05:06:07 pm »

White and blue has got to be my favorite color scheme.

Darkening Kaos

  • Bay Watcher
  • Legendary Gibbering Idiot +5
    • View Profile
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1608 on: May 25, 2023, 10:43:41 pm »

    I find the story engrossing, Cathar, and the artwork is a wonderful counterpoint to the important, and minor, events that strike Kimaeslo Ori.
Logged
So! Failed to make peace, war looms, kill the infidels... what are our plans for the weekend?
The Giant Moles in the caverns of my current fort breed like crazy, even while regularly being decimated by other beasts entering them...

Cathar

  • Bay Watcher
  • Competent Engraver
    • View Profile
    • My shit
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1609 on: May 31, 2023, 03:52:06 am »

Also kinda makes me imagine "pearl-iron" as a human-made version of steel using sea shells and such for flux instead of calcium-based stone. Might be a neat little thing to add for modding something someday.

In my head it was just a term to differenciate human iron from dwarven steel - irl the difference between the three state of iron (iron, pig iron and steel) is its carbon content. In the 1800, there was indeed a difference made between those three qualities in the french industry at least (an item could be made "de fer", "de fonte" or "d'acier") and those distinctions had a real meaning (in terms of pricing and applications).
However in our pre-christian bronze age kingdom, our tech level is simply not good enough to spot the difference, as it's not an alloy. They just get that dwarven iron is better, and domestically produced is a bit shittier without understanding why.

I had a similar want to call copper "osmite bronze" as copper was never used non-alloyed in warfare (the closest we get was arsenic bronze, which is almost pure copper alloyed with arsenic)

But I like the idea of using seashells as flux. It'll probably be canon from now on.

Else :

Winter have been played, but aside one big event it was rather calm. Still want to do 3 illustrations per seasons to keep up my standards, so if you have any idea or thing you want to see drawn, or one character being explored, now is the time.

Cathar

  • Bay Watcher
  • Competent Engraver
    • View Profile
    • My shit
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1610 on: July 19, 2023, 06:08:25 pm »

Winter 157

The old war for Sanrebtekkud

Sanrebtekkud was one of the earliest fortress of the dwarven kingdom of Lålrigoth. Located and carved in the stone of the south Sestanraz Range, it was meant to serve as the capital city of the young kingdom and as a base for further expansion through the range.
However, in the savage early years of the world, the fort would soon face mounting monster issues until its eventual destruction: two giant monsters in year 4, then five more between years 16 and 25 left the fort weakened.
It is in year 57 that it finally buckled under the pressure: a giant white bird of prey attacked the fort, killed its militia, slew the king of Lålrigoth and forced the dwarves to evacuate the fort.

The kingdom of Lålrigoth relocated its capital city to Bimnazom, further in the mountains – the roc bird was baptized “Nefolà Enorerofa Rèfa Yëmi” and became the god of the Sestanraz Mountain Range. The dwarves gave up on recapturing their fort, and the god did not launch anymore attack.

Peace with the wylde world it seems, could be bartered out of the situation.

That arrangement lasted for one hundred years.

Sacrilegious opportunism

Back to the present day, the war between Mong Kima and Osmestobûb had definitively turned in favor of the former, with Osme losing an average of two settlements per year since 154, and failing dramatically at launching effective counter-attacks. Now the pearlite army is closing in on Fort Stustonako, Osme starts to realize the dire predicament it finds itself in.

In early winter 157, a warlord by the name of Bosa Ultanguslu came with a new plan. Bosa was a veteran of the war between Osme and Ansgek, having led, in 135, a brutal attack on the Angsgeki village of Otutsong, far in the north. His brutality earned him the heroic name Sumxorualor, “Foundation of all sacrileges”.

Now was Bosa tired of the cold climate of Otutsong, moved by a deep sense of duty toward his empire or was he simply bored, winter 157 is the time he decided to engage his troops in another operation.

They arrived in Sanrebtekkud sometimes in January. What they did there, and how is still shrouded in mystery – but here’s what we know.



A few days after they arrived,  Nefolà Enorerofa Rèfa Yëmi woke up and flew away – directly in the direction of Kimeaslo Ori. It is absolutely baffling how a squad of goblins managed to do in a couple days what dwarves failed in one hundred years. More baffling still how they managed to weaponize a sleeping god in the war against Mong Kima – widening the front and earning a new settlement in the process.


The 22 of January, the flag of Osmestobûb was raised on the abandoned dwarven fortress.

Fending off the flying god



The 18 of January,  Nefolà Enorerofa Rèfa Yëmi arrived in the vicinity of Kimaeslo Ori. When it arrived, he was so huge that its wingspan obscured the sun. A bit tired by the long trip it just finished, it landed on the beach where a small cat was sleeping – the god made it its snack.

Now it wasn’t the first time the city was attacked by giant monsters, even in recent history – still a big event, but nothing the town could not survive.

The army scrambled to prepare a defense. Because the monster landed on the beach, south of the main hub of the city, the army would have to cross half of the bridge to engage it – we feared that civilian casualties could be sustained before they arrived. Moreover, Histamine’s tactic squad and Islas’ heavy mobile infantry were out of town in an offensive operation at the time, and the towns defense was weakened as a result.

Luckily, one swordsman, a young soldier named Samas, was visiting town at the time – accompanied by a wardog that found his way through the city, Samas engaged the creature.



Samas was neither a master at arms nor was he equipped properly – but he fought fearlessly until the army arrived and the god flew away.



At this point, Nefolà couldn’t go back to Sanrebtekkud, nor it could drive the pearlites out of their cities. With nowhere to go, it flew helplessly over the sea, presumably feeding on sea life for the remaining days of winter, occasionally flying near the bridge and startling the population.

We’ll have to do something about it.

Military development

The story with the roc bird occupied most of the winter, in Kimaeslo Ori. Besides, the army taking a lot of time to recruit, train and arm their new squads and the tasks of generating more occupation forces was far to be completed.

Until capable forces are available to hold captured territory, launching a large scale offensive was pointless – but the army did not want to leave Osme enough time to breathe and reconstitute itself.

A politics of ambiant, constant scaled-down harassment tactics was decided, to grind osmite forces, drain their morale and reduce both their long term defensive capacity and their ability to mount effective counter attacks.

Two assault were conducted this winter, using the same squads as usual, the tactic squads and the heavy mobile infantry squad – the first in January 16, the second in February 23. A total of twenty six defenders were slain during those operations.

But again we lack the manpower to capitalize on those successes.

Weddings and burials

As the Lady starting to age, she decided she would marry soon to insure her legacy. The season has been rather calm, so now was as good a time it could ever be.

Now matchmaking has been inscribed within pearlite tradition – the taciturn and introvert population of the kingdom required that much.  There was no set way to arrange a marriage – usually, the parents would petition the local lord, who would then try to match the suitor to other compatible candidates, essentially acting as matchmakers.

For marriages carrying an important legacy or political significance, it was also common for families to sign the deal within themselves, with or without the intervention of the nobility – whose roles would then be reduced to simply act the wedding rite.

All that to say that Lady Desli, as she looked for a wedding for herself, had already a list of age-appropriate bachelors on hand. She had no outright preference at first – her suitor would have to be important, be interested in the affair, be of good morale standing, and of similar age to her – Desli was 39.

Luckily, one of her one of her subjects filled all those requirements: Izem Konsekonli, the lieutenant in Princeling Sothro’s squad, literal godslayer, was still unmarried. Cue a couple weeks of preparations and underground work – making sure that the wedding would not upset other parties, such a hidden lover, or Izem’s hierarchy that could be annoyed by their military hierarchy disturbed by the union.

Having received the blessings of all relevant parties – including Izem himself – the wedding carried on and was concluded the last day of the year.




On other news, Leto Pessalejas, high master clothier, was found dead in her bed at the end of the year. Although her death caused a lot of unrest initially, it was ruled that she died of natural death, her life having simply run its course. Born in 70, mother of 10 children. Among other things, she was the grandmother of Hustra, Zothoabo’s wife who got hexed by the lizard curse, long time ago.
Some of her children and grandchildren are present in town, most of them part of the army.

The death of Leto stings a bit, for emotional reasons first, but also because talented textile workers are the money printers of Kimeaslo Ori. Training the next generation of clothiers might be a difficult task.

Her body is cued to be destroyed soon, and a slate is due to be engraved with her name, and installed in the underground memorial.

Rest in peace.







As a side note, this is the first time in years of game that I witness someone die of old age. Spooked me a bit.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2023, 06:14:09 pm by Cathar »
Logged

Splint

  • Bay Watcher
  • War is a valid form of diplomacy.
    • View Profile
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1611 on: July 19, 2023, 06:57:19 pm »

Frankly I'm shocked the roc decided (and survived long enough) to fuck off. Apart from their girthiness they aren't exactly known to be the most survivable of megabeasts.

As to the old-age death, I'd say that's something to be celebrated. Gods know most in DF worlds don't seem to get that lucky unless a gen is unusually peaceful.

Maloy

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1612 on: July 20, 2023, 01:27:41 pm »

Ah man it'd be so cool if you guys could capture the Roc!

If you do just be careful even after training it military units who see it might bug out and try to kill it anyway!

TheFlame52

  • Bay Watcher
  • Master of the randomly generated
    • View Profile
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1613 on: July 20, 2023, 03:21:20 pm »

Spooked rocs are almost more deadly than brave ones. A brave roc flies in, kills a couple dwarves, picks a fight with the military, and dies. A cowardly roc... a cowardly roc can return at any time. You tab out and leave the fort running, and it'll come back and slaughter all your woodcutters and haulers while you aren't looking. I had one fort where 7 different rocs attacked. The #1 cause of death in that fort was being disemboweled by a roc. For some reason, they'd always go for the lower body.

Also congratulations to Lady Desli and Izem! And your art is fantastic as always.

Cathar

  • Bay Watcher
  • Competent Engraver
    • View Profile
    • My shit
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1614 on: October 07, 2023, 07:34:57 am »

Spring 158

The death of Nefolà

The direct consequence of the happenings of winter 157 was that an old god, the Roc Nefolà Enorerofa Rèfa Yëmi elected to take residence in the vicinity of the bridge. For months now, the pearlites did not know what to do with her – the ideal would be to capture her, but how?  They installed traps wherever they could, but how would they catch a flying monster of this size?
Letting it flying freely was not an option either, as it was scaring the population of the town, and we feared that it would likewise scare the merchants, come the time of the spring festival. To drive it away, Histamine’s crossbows took position on the barrack’s roof and shot a dozen quarrels at her. It was enough to drive her off the bridge for a while…  but we knew it couldn’t last. If the monster wouldn’t leave and we couldn’t capture it, death was the only remaining option.

It was the five or march when Nefolà decided to confront us once again. Util then, she has been probing the city for a gap in our defenses, and she finally found one . Spotting an elven vagrant, alone on the western shore – a poor girl by the name of Vinena Tayolyimepe – she decided to make a snack out of her.

By the time the army could react, it was already too late for Vinena: the monster was already upon her and would make quick work out of her. But her death would not be in vain.
The army rushed to the site and were fast enough to catch the monster feeding on the poor elf. It was now or never: they charged the monster.




The battle was short and brutal. The monster was large, but the weapons of the army were especially well suited to fight it. With her wings damaged, Nefolà lost the ability to fly off – dragged to the ground, she was slain by the army. A spearmistress by the name of Laspar Nirsushsath dealt the final blow.

Because old gods deserve respect even in death, Nefolà’s body was destroyed soon after. Maybe it was a mistake – probably we could have harvested its bones for our industry... But no matter.

From now on, its spirit shall live on with us. On its behalf, we shall take revenge on the Osmites who drove her out of her home.


Diplomacy and war-planning
Last year, a diplomatic incident had cooled the relations between Mong Kima and the elven kingdom of Iferifiyopi – this is why we were very relieved to see they decided to come back this year. The spring festival could take place and this time, we made substantial efforts not to offend them again. This allowed us to buy a large quantity of fuel – necessary to processs Osmite scavanged gear into gear of war.

Iferifiyopi was not a party involved in the war against Osme. Their territory is located far into the west, and most of their people would likely never meet a goblin. But by providing war beasts and large quantity of fuel to our forges, they became one of our dearest assets in the conflict.

Efforts have to be deployed to please their exotic sensibilities, but those efforts do not go in vain. Their trade and support allow us to sped up force generation, which needs to go full sail ahead now.

This spring, no offensive action was taken against Osme. The death of Nefolà was enough of an adventure and the army needed to rest – but we’re confident that we can push the frontline comes Summer.

In other news, our trade deficit continues its steady resorption. Bookkeeper Oso counts that if we can continue the pace we have for twelve or thirteen months, the bridge would officially have given more than it would have taken from the outside world.

Achieving a positive trade balance is still one of our primary objectives.

Domestic development

Now that we have a lot of fuel, it is time to step up our industrial production. For a long time, the smith guild has been confined in underground forges carved in the old mines. It was meant to be a temporary solution – but somehow with the time, it ended up becoming the norm. We don’t want to leave our most esteemed craftmen lie more than they ought to in a state of precarity.

One of the large buildings we started to install on the western banks will be the new redsmithing guild. It should be a multiple-story building, with a metal shop on the ground floor, a large classroom on the first floor, forges and furnaces in the second and third floor, the offices on the fourth floor. This project will again take some time, but will become functionnal way before it is achieved.

The other projects in progress are plentiful : the barracks still need two stories and a roof. The bridge granary needs to be expended still, and the mausoleum is far to be finished. All of those projects continue to be worked n, but everything is limited by the rate of stone production.

Vagrancy is still a problem

Since the fall of the Aconilun in September 149 – almost nine years ago ! –  vagrancy has been a problem in Kimaeslo Ori.  Deprived of their legitimate government, a number of small communities decided to inhabit various places around the bridge for shelter and protection – the beaches, the forests, the underground mines…
At its roots, the Thaguk Alnos was but one of those small communities. Although it grew faster than its peers and was eventually formally legitimized as the new owners of the bridgetown – and then by the blessing of the Queen herself, those competing communities never moved from the places they settled in.

During the recorded history of the Thaguk Alnos, we witnessed a number of death among those “vagrants” and their number inevitably diminishes – life in the outskirts of the town is hard and cruel.

But in spring 158, their numbers was still high and conflicts between communities would happen episodically.

Such was the case in May, when a vagrant by the name of Fanu Pumekaslu stalked and killed one of the prized warbeasts of the town.



Trained to trust and obey its human masters, the poor feline was taken by surprise and made no attempt at defending itself ; the vagrant slew him with his pearl iron knife.

That affair caused a commotion in town – not only a warbeast was killed, but it was killed in the oatfield and that scuffle trampled a lot of crops. Most of the springs harvest would subsequently have to be trashed.

Moreover, Fanu was not a member of the Thaguk Alnos and could not be judged by the lady – as he was not her subject. Justice could not be served. There was, of course, a remedy that Lady Desli could use to protect her property: her monopoly on violence. She could just have the man killed on the ground that he is a bandit.

The affair was brought to her, and she appeared visibly annoyed. There was no good available move for her. In one hand, the whole city was pissed about the event. The farmers lost a large part of their harvest, the army lost one of their prized warbeasts and in general, the citizen were made nervous by the presence among them of violent beggars.

In the other hand, was it enough to take a man’s life ? At the end of the day, Fanu was let go.

“I’m not bloodying my hands in that affair” she explained to her subjects. “No pearlite died, and even without the full spring harvest, our granaries are fattening. This is very upsetting, but IO cannot have a pearlite killed over a warbeast.
-What if he kills one of us next? Asked a subject. Are we simply to wait until his first human victim?
-Yes, exactly – Lady Desli responded calmly. If he kills one of you, I’ll give another judgement. In the meantime, I’m not judging a pearlite over a crime they might commit.”

Of course, she knew it was not a good answer. There was no good answer – letting the man live will probably invite more troubles in the future.
In the end, she was ruling on virtue and good principles; it was not meant to be the easy road.


View of the southern gate


Splint

  • Bay Watcher
  • War is a valid form of diplomacy.
    • View Profile
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1615 on: October 07, 2023, 01:28:10 pm »

Glorious work on the bridge, the picture of the western bank gives me some old bronze/iron age vibes for whatever reason.

Also your handling of the slain Roc is a hell of a lot more respectful than I would have been, I would have mounted its skull in the barracks or somewhere else of prominence as a show of power.

Cathar

  • Bay Watcher
  • Competent Engraver
    • View Profile
    • My shit
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1616 on: October 07, 2023, 05:58:35 pm »

Yeah, about Fanu, he's doing a lot of fucking around and might get a bit of finding out happening to him.
With that said, especially since the war expended our territory, and is slowly morphing our kingdom into an empire, we need to be extremely vigilent not to become the evil we're fighting. The life of a pearlite is essencially more valuable than the life of any animal, regardless of bonds or rarity... Ultimately we can breed more jaguars, but we won't breed more Fanu. I have a finger on the "find out" button but I prefer not to press it until I'm really left without a choice

Maloy

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1617 on: October 13, 2023, 05:43:51 am »

Love the development. Too bad about the Roc, but better than leaving it flying around unattended!

Smiths get their own cool building too


Beggar better be careful that some farmers don't take justice into their own hands!

Cathar

  • Bay Watcher
  • Competent Engraver
    • View Profile
    • My shit
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1618 on: February 11, 2024, 02:25:00 pm »

oof, at least 120 days without development.
Just a small message to say, I havn't abandonned that save, and Im coming back to it very soon.

Maybe a little question tho, maybe someone knows the answer : is there a way to exile / take control of a unit that is not my own ? Using dfHack, obviously ? I kind of don't want to chose between leaving vagrants killing my citizen and sending the death squads on the homeless, and the dilemna is killing me.

The summer has been violent and we have casualties, but also some good news. Actual update soon

Haspen

  • Bay Watcher
  • Cthuwu
    • View Profile
Re: Mong Kima - The Nation of Pearls (DF 0.47.05)
« Reply #1619 on: February 11, 2024, 02:31:02 pm »

Seeing this pop up in unread messages is a happy occassion no matter the update or delays, Cathar, a testament to your skills in art and storytelling :3
Logged
SigFlags!
Quote from: Draignean@Spamkingdom+
Truly, we have the most uniquely talented spy network in all existence.
Quote from: mightymushroom@Spamkingdom#
Please tell me the Royal Physician didn't go to the same college as the Spymaster.
Pages: 1 ... 106 107 [108] 109 110 111