Dwarves all over Entar have many names for the seemingly cursed fortress of Rallogem, known as Silverypainted to non-dwarves. Popular names include "The Unlucky Fort", "A mass grave with a tavern", "Werebeast territory", "That hole in the ground we send idiots to", the list goes on, many are too obscene to be shared here. The once pristine landscape has become littered with the skeletal remains of dwarves, humans, elves and goblins alike, either falling prey to the constant werebeast attacks or simply getting themselves killed through alcohol-induced shenanigans.
Despite the negative connotations and becoming a hotbed for young adventurers seeking to plunder the bone-ridden halls only to meet their ends via anything from bogeymen to falling out of trees, the dwarves simply refuse to abandon the fortress, having the utmost respect for the original settlers and their struggles over the six years of the fort's original lifespan.
Oddom Ralkubuk, then the last surviving dwarf of the original expedition, spent the entirety of the first winter alone as his kinsmen succumbed to dehydration after the lakes froze over, spending the ensuing months with no water or alcohol as he forced himself to continue building, digging tombs for his fallen comrades.
Spring eventually came as Ralkubuk was on the brink of death, and the first wave of migrants arrived. The outpost liaisons and occasional merchants would note that he almost never spoke a word after the events of that winter. Ralkubuk went on to run the fortress for a time, before becoming the first casualty to the werebuffalos that took interest in the now-thriving fortress.
Within the space of a week the fortress' population had dwindled from over two hundred to a meager twelve, nine of which were children. Not knowing who could be infected, the last surviving swordsdwarf sealed the fortress' front gate, trapping herself and the survivors inside. Whether they were slaughtered by one of their own or eventually starved is unknown, by the time another expedition was sent to resettle, all that was left were bones and angry merchants.
In the ensuing months between Silverypainted's fall in early 1055 and the first resettlement, relations had collapsed between the dwarves and both the elven and human nations and war broke out. Seeing the original merchants still waiting outside Silverypainted's closed gate, unhappy to see the new colonists. A brief fight broke out before the expedition was abandoned and the survivors retreated to the Mountainhomes.
In the spring of 1057, a third expedition was launched, this time with the simple task of burying the countless fallen dwarves that littered the landscape. The new occupants managed to crack open the stone gate that had been sealed for nearly two whole years and got to work, the population growing back to a respectable forty-eight in a surprisingly short space of time.
Unfortunately, the sheer volume of bodies to bury as opposed to capable miners and masons led to the main task never being completed, resulting in ghosts appearing all over the fortress as the new tenants got on with their lives, the hauntings becoming a mild annoyance if nothing else.
Silverypainted enjoyed a brief era of peace in these months, as the elves and humans never bothered the occupants and food was never an issue, but soon the unusual calm would disappear once more. Within several weeks, a surprise weregila monster attack resulted in several deaths. Unwilling to repeat the fate of the original occupants, the dwarves sealed the hospital up, replacing the doors with fortifications, to trap the weregila monsters inside at the cost of any other wounded while the marksdwarves picked them off outside.
Unbeknownst to them a member of the military had also been infected, resulting in yet another bloodbath even after the quarantined monsters were slain. Within days the remaining dwarves were all dead, and Silverypainted's doors closed once more.
TL;DR I absolutely suck at dealing with werebeasts and ended up watching over 300 dwarves die while wars broke out in my attempts to stop the outbreak.
Succession game's started on the Vault of Horrors thread, so let me know there if you wanna be added to the list
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Topic: The Cursed Settlement of Silverypainted (Read 2066 times)