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Author Topic: LCM - Dungeonevened - The End  (Read 38137 times)

Fleeting Frames

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - >Be Grug >Invade long-ear tribe's cave
« Reply #135 on: August 28, 2018, 08:48:32 pm »

Vemini is a problem. A pathing restriction might solve the spam, though I'm not sure what can they do - I kept my armless in military anyway as a meat shield, and I suppose they can discuss in library, though writing requires grasp - and I think bookkeeping does as well. So does mooding.

...Oh, I guess Vemini was a problem. You could still keep him alive with a burrow, though.


I like how you handle skeletals. And birds, jeez.
(Though that will get old sooner than later.)

I however question how one can stab wind.


Scourge is pretty daring fighter. Of course, if they were to die, it'd mean interesting things for the plot.

Pfft on Ombragon.

Hauling food to Scourge...It's a possiblity with burrow arrangement, but should be avoided, for dehydration kills the baby.

And 20 babies? Doable but heh. Will take a while.


These pants of bone....*looks at skeletal caravan meaningfully*

I didn't know possessions could decipt possessions, however. Cool reference to history, there.


Who else is pregnant?

Darkening Kaos

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - >Be Grug >Invade long-ear tribe's cave
« Reply #136 on: August 28, 2018, 10:18:05 pm »

    Skelebros are best!  Kaos would be rifling through all of their books, scrolls and parchments, whether they were for sale or not.
    Turning to one just before they depart and casually mentioning, "Has anyone ever said you would make a great coat hanger?", one might even detect just a hint of venom in her voice, "Bring better books next time"
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...

SQman

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - I am angry. ANGRY ABOUT CORPSES
« Reply #137 on: September 04, 2018, 10:25:02 am »



I've been wondering for a while why there was so much blood everywhere in the fort, and I suspected it had something to do with Heech's blood syndrome. I was right, but I can't tell if it's a good or a bad thing. The drows will never stop coughing blood, and it's not enough to kill them. One troll ended up in hospital and started leaving teal tracks behind, so the sickness can still spread.
It's not a huge problem, but that's not how forts are usually painted with blood.


And 20 babies? Doable but heh. Will take a while.


I didn't know possessions could decipt possessions, however. Cool reference to history, there.

Who else is pregnant?

Having 20 children is easier if you're an immortal elf.

I've seen engravings about fey moods too, so I guess it's a thing that could happen.

I guess most married women would be pregnant, which means none of the named ones besides Scourge. Other ladies include: albino Melici, dungeon mistress Yetine, Asin's wife.




SQ didn't like holding meetings in her own office. It was her personal space, and having it invaded wasn't in her business at all. Some drows, however, were insistent on talking to the overseer in the office.



Asithi the house cleric was outraged by something, but instead of telling SQ straight away, she sat at the desk, looking at the overseer with her eyes filled with frustration.

"A-Asithi, could you please stop staring at me? You're making me uncomfortable. If that's some kind of surprise therapy, I'll have to ask you to leave right now." SQ was desperately trying to avoid eye contact, and with every second of the priestess's glaring, staying calm was getting more and more difficult.

"I just want to get you in the mood, make you as miserable as I am so you can understand the point I'm going to make. I see you're ready." Asithi cracked her knuckles, took a deep breath, and cried: "The patients have no respect for me! That friend of yours left the hospital without informing any medical personnel, the patient with jellified bones completely disappeared, even though he should have been completely immobile, Freshcannon manservant Biretha didn't want to tell me where he gets all those bruises from... And that strumpet from Mahogany Hall says I'm slacking on the job!"

"That's, uhh..." SQ had no idea what to say.

"I think I'm... no, I can't self-diagnose, this would be a bad example for a young, impressionable girl like you, overseer. I know!" Asithi took the closest slip of paper she could find, which happened to be an order for the outpost liaison, and started writing something. When she finished she handed it to SQ. "Here's your medical licence. Now diagnose me with depression."



"This is ridicu..." SQ bit her tongue fast enough. "You have depression, there's no denying it."

The cleric took the medical licence away from SQ, torn it to shreds and left the room without saying a word.

---

Darkening Kaos was discussing personal matters with skeletons who were loitering at the trade depot.
"So... you got any good books?" She asked.

"GOOD? NO, OF COURSE NOT! WE'RE UNDEAD ABOMINATIONS, EVERYTHING WE HAVE IS EVIL! *CLACK CLACK CLACK*!" One of the skeletons laughed. "GOOD JOKE, GOOD JOKE. WE CAN'T READ WITHOUT EYES, FLESHIE!"

"Then how..." Kaos stopped to consider if talking to the bags of bones could ever be productive in any way. She concluded that it couldn't. "You know, there's certain beauty in your forms... you, for example, would make a great coat hanger, you, pumpkin head, would be a pretty effective scarecrow." The tone of her voice indicated that this wasn't meant to be a compliment. "Next time have a good look around your fortress and bring some books or scrolls.

Disappointed in the lack of new reading material, Kaos turned around, ready to head to the forge, when her eyes caught a glimpse of a familiar face. By all accounts that person shouldn't have been in Dungeonevened. Kaos hurried to approach them.

The young woman caught up with the group of newcomers by the entrance to the Mahogany Hall. She quickly located the person she was looking for.
"M-mistress Yetine Tamelies! It's... It's such an honor to meet you here after all those years!"

The scrawny migrant looked at Kaos with no emotions whatsoever. "Yes, yes, you have all my books. No, I won't sign them. Where's the matriarch's office?

"I attended some of your lectures, even sent you a paper to review! The name's Darkening Kaos or Fecawi Searedfly. Don't you remember?" Kaos wasn't ready to give up just yet.

"Yes, I'll never forget it. After all I've never heard of such absurdities in my entire life. A machine will never be able to suture a wound, let alone do it better than a living person! I read your paper to my colleagues, and they laughed for two days straight." Yetine was just getting warmed up. "I'm glad you stopped attending my lectures, because you're obviously not a healer material. From that single paper I could deduce that you believed there's future in mechanics and metallurgy, and you're a fool if you still haven't changed your mind. The art of suturing and wound dressing cannot be improved, because I, Yetine Tamelies, am the pinnacle of medical ability!"



"I see you haven't changed a bit, mistress." Kaos said, not discouraged at all. "I gave up on medicine when I realized I'd rather forge tools for causing wounds. There's always been a need for those in Murknightmare. I see you took some apprentices. Are they good at licking your boots, or are they slaves?"

"It would be in your best interest to show me where's the matriarch and never speak to me ever again."

"You're not talking to SQ, but Fred, our administrator might have some work for you." Darkening Kaos still looked at the legendary healer with admiration, but there was also some cathartic sadism showing on her face. "How do your companions feel about hauling corpses?"

---



With each day more and more horrific creatures emerged from the caverns. The military was informed about a pack of skinless monsters roaming the narrow corridors to the south. Both Freshcannon and Asin answered the call. Imic wanted to go too, but the diamondium shortage left his soldiers underequipped.




The beasts' appearance was gruesome, but it didn't take long to dispose of them.



Uthimi, the creator of Imic's spacesuit, was ambushed by one of the rippers. The armorer sucker punched the monster, then crushed its arm with her bare hand.



After a solid punch from one of the Helmet Snakes, the ripper keeled over as if preparing for Freshcannon's axe.

---



"I HOPE THIS WHOLE PLACE COLLAPSES AND BURIES ALL YOU WORTHLESS ASSHOLES UNDER A THICK LAYERS OF RUBBLE! ENOUGH OF THOSE DAMN MUSSELS! THEY EAT FISH SHIT, PEOPLE! FISH SHIT!" The fisherman shouted while kicking barrels in the food stockpile.

Suddenly he felt someone's hand on his shoulder. It was MottledPetrel. "Weri, it's time for a smoke break. We fishermen are the backbone of this community, but if we don't smoke, we get cranky and you're plenty cranky right now. Why?"

"It's... it's all those skeletons! Not the living ones, but the dead mongrelfolk, trogs, humans... Petrel, boss, we're not immortal, despite what the priestesses and bluebloods want us to believe!"

"And? We don't age, but a serious blow to the head can kill us, we've all always knew this, Weri. Tell me, how does this change your life?" Petrel pulled out a pack of cigarettes from under his coat. "Coming with us?"

Weri calmed down as quickly as he erupted. "Okay, thanks, boss."

---

"Every time I hear about anything that happens in the caverns, it involves some horrible monsters! Why is that?" SQ was furious after hearing about the ripper packs roaming the caverns. Normally she wouldn't talk to Freshcannon like that, but she had enough.

"When we were making our exit, one of my Snakes saw a shark troll sneaking around too. If I gotta be honest, kid, I think the problem is with people, not the monsters. I mean, the monsters are nasty sons of bitches, but the dumbasses who run around looking for webs are asking for mauling."

"You're a priestess of a chthonic deity, can't you just chant some prayers, draw some protective sigils, and curse all monsters in existence so they don't bother anyone?"

"You overestimate what I'm capable of. We could spend eternity killing monsters, but I can't guarantee they would stop coming."



"No more collecting webs, then! We can get silk from egg sacs and silkmilk! You know what? I'll have the caverns walled off completely! There's nothing interesting out there!" SQ felt strange satisfaction from making those decision, as if she took revenge on some old enemy."

---

On the surface, just by the entrance to the town proper, a certain drow snapped under overwhelming stress of everyday life.




Overwhelmed by rage brewing within her, Asithi started wailing on the first person she saw, and just so happened that this person was Fred the Mitey, the house administrator. The poor man had no chance to defend himself from the crazed cleric's assault.
Fortunately Asithi realized beating innocent bystanders wasn't as satisfying as she imagined, so she headed to the shrine of Otira, hoping that meditation on something peaceful, like fishing, would douse the flames of her fury.

---



Nunore stood over Fred's bed, admiring her work. She was getting better and better at putting drows back together, and if she started caring one day, she might have even applied for medical papers.

"N-Nunore... I'm glad there are still good women like you around, not just psychotic woman-children, shady sociopaths, and priestesses with anger management problems." Fred said as soon as he regained full consciousness. Seeing the barkeep taking care of him was not only a relief, but also a great pleasure for him.

"Finally awake. I'll go get you a crutch and some water, just wait for me." Nunore was about to go fetch what she needed. "Once you're out of here, please don't overwork yourself, your hip will need some time to heal."

"Oh great, several centuries of a hip pain ahead of me. Am I officially an old man now? Where do I apply for pension?" A lot went through the administrator's mind, but before he could express everything, Nunore left the hospital.

---



Ugh, what a horrible season this was! Nothing but listening to whinging, dealing with cavern monsters, Asithi picking fights with everyone!" SQ complained to Scourge while visiting her in her room.

"That and I'm still not quite ready to walk on my own, Five and some others cough blood all the time, and Kaos has been complaining about some new healer lady." Scourge added. "This wasn't a good autumn for anybody, really."

"And diamondium shortage, waves of new abrians, projects to finish... You know, I sometimes miss being a caretaker in the royal meangerie in Murknightmare."

"Being a rothegirl is easier than overseeing a town, who would have thought?" Scourge smiled and got up from her bed. "Okay, enough lying around. You've been working your butt off, now it's my turn to join you... if you help me with the stairs."

"Wait a moment, I promised Melici, the albino Melici, I'd do something for her. Just a moment!"

---



"Melici, is there a particular reason why you want to do this?" SQ shouted from the lever room by the arena.

"Yes, being different I need to keep proving my worth all the time or else people would try to keep me down!" Melici shouted back from the arena. She was looking impatiently at hideous mongrelfolk locked up in cages. She couldn't wait to sink her blade into their flesh. "Are you pulling this lever or what?"

"You know you don't need to prove anything? Asin likes you a lot, you're his second most valuable soldier, right after his wife!"

"Pull this lever already!" The Silver Samurai snapped.



After a brief fight, the six mongrelfolk's body parts were scattered across the arena. Melici took of her helmet, spit out some blood, then shouted: "Overseer, you can lower the bridge now!" But she heard no answer. "Overseer? SQ, this isn't funny! Get me out of here!"

---



SQ and Scourge were taking care of abrians in the menagerie, when suddenly they heard Fred the Mitey's voice calling to everyone: "Traders from Murknightmare are here! Gather all your trash and whatever else you want to get rid of and bring it to the depot!"

"Aww, looks like I'm going back to my room..." Scourge sighed in disappointment.

"You can come with me to my office, maybe Weri will take pity of you and gives us a better deal next year." SQ suggested, vaguely humorously.

"Hah, I won't achieve what you already don't. She probably treats you as if you were her great-granddaughter. I'll go with you, though, just so I don't have to lie in bed for any longer." Scourge agreed.

"Age-wise I could be Weri's mother, you know."

"Emotional development-wise and appearance-wise you really could be her great-granddaughter." Scourge pointed out, then added: "Of course only if her children and grandchildren hooked up exclusively with drows. Humans are weird."

---



On the surface Fred was watching the merchants move towards the depot, when suddenly one of the wagons stopped. The slave beasts pulling it were staring with horror at the skeleton of a dead swinetaur thief. After a while they went mad, breaking the wagon, spilling piles of metal ingots and nuggets on the ground. The rest of the traders turned around to avoid the rampaging slave beasts. In the process they also avoided trading with Dungeonevened.

---

Spoiler: M&M session (click to show/hide)



Notes:
-Dedicated trash haulers are a must. Even those few new trashmen managed to do more cleaning in a month than 80 working drows in 3 years.

-Sentient creatures should NEVER be wagon pullers. They cancel pulling wagons at the mere sight of a corpse.

-The house cleric is responsible for law enforcement. That explains why Asithi is constantly pissed we don't have a prison.

-Weri the fisherman has great self-control. He tantrumed twice without ever assaulting anyone, while Asithi keeps attacking drows and animals.

-Getting a legendary wound dresser isn't that exciting when a barmaid can do the same job just as well. A legendary fish cleaner would have been much better.

ZM5

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - I am angry. ANGRY ABOUT CORPSES
« Reply #138 on: September 04, 2018, 11:06:02 am »

I think I'd be going insane too if aside from having to deal with regular old rotting corpses I'd also have to deal with punster skeletons.

Strange about the slave beasts though - in my experience I haven't had issues with semi-sentient wagon pullers (though I give them innate discipline which may or may not have something to do with it)

Fleeting Frames

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - I am angry. ANGRY ABOUT CORPSES
« Reply #139 on: September 04, 2018, 12:09:22 pm »

@Blood cough:

How big are the drows? When one of my embarks had permanent blood cough, I found it was deadly to dogs, harmless (blood in body confirmed to not go down via gui/gm-editor) to large livestock, and eventually killed my experimental dwarves in many months with time depending on their body size. Wiki claimed blood cough to be harmless, but I know it is almost harmless now.

(I suspect trained military might have survived.)

@Babies: None of my dwarves in Moonhome died of old age, yet only few got past 20 babies. Unless you modded your drows to have multiple births or something.

You can check how many are pregnant with relations-indicator(in my sig). Based on past experience and you not menioning births in past posts, I suspect no more than 2 are pregnant, unless you have yearly mandatory time offs.

@Military drama:

...it'd be easy to fool these investigators. Look, Fred already blamed things on someone they can't reach.

@Asithi:

Ahahaha. Wait, you enabled medical labours on SQ?

Pfft that's going to be fun.

@Trade:

Wait, did Kaos suggest them to have a good look right after they said they don't have eyes? Pfft.

Anyway, it's quite odd that they accept anything. Can't wait for economy arc.

Oh, and regular vanilla wagons explode at corpses too, this is not the fault of the mod.

@Yetine:

"Legendary Wound Healer"...Oho! That's nice usage of SDL editing.

@Fishertantrum:

I'm curious, does the mod actually have therapists?

Darkening Kaos

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - I am angry. ANGRY ABOUT CORPSES
« Reply #140 on: September 04, 2018, 09:57:41 pm »

     You, sir, are having too much fun with the M&M sessions...……...keep up the good work.

     As for that strumpet Wound Dresser, one day, at the end of combat, I'm going to get a random arm or leg from the field of battle and take it to the hospital and demand she 'do her best to save her patient', probably followed up with a toy axe mysteriously replacing all her surgical tools.
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...

SQman

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - The circus is in town! (not this circus)
« Reply #141 on: October 02, 2018, 03:42:18 pm »

It's been a long time again. I just couldn't get in the mood for writing, and when I finally did, my laptop's charger got busted. My life in a nutshell.

I know how the cave roaches keep getting out of their terrariums! SQ keeps releasing them for some reason! The previous three were either killed with doors or eaten by spiders, I don't know why my drow thinks keeping the fourth cockroach outside of the terrarium would be a good idea. Well, RIP SQ5, victim of her owner's good will.

Strange about the slave beasts though - in my experience I haven't had issues with semi-sentient wagon pullers (though I give them innate discipline which may or may not have something to do with it)

Slave creatures handle fear really strangely. While regular citizens just take a hit to mood and continue going their way, trolls keep cancelling jobs and run around scared. Would removing [WAGON_PULLER] work in an existing world?



Five years old Asithi Liegills got bored of playing in the bedroom level's corridors all day, and as a resourceful drowling she was, she quickly found a solution to this problem. She needed to find out what she wanted to do when she grows up. After five minutes of walking back and forth completely lost in thought, she looked at the toy she was holding in her hand the whole time - a bronze toy sword. She knew.

---

Imic was having a hard day. The last day of Moonstone was the last day of training before a month long break for Blackguards, and nobody seemed to be eager to do any training.

"Miss Litheme, we'll be having a lunch break in about an hour, you won't starve until then! Mister Fecawi, I won't believe you have this so-called narcolepsy unless you bring me mistress Asithi's opinion on paper! Mistress Freshcannon, where are you going? Don't leave me with seventeen people to take care of!" Imic couldn't handle the situation, but he remembered what the city guard instructor in Murknightmare used to do in moments like this.

The weapon master went outside, believing that his soldiers would be too lazy to kill each other, and trusting that ZM5 would manage to keep Biretha and Melici from taking their antics too far. Before he could even wipe sweat from his forehead, he noticed a tiny person rushing straight at him.

"Mis'ser, mis'ser, what do you do, mis'ser? Mis'ser, what do you do?" Asithi inquired, pointing at Imic with her toy sword.

"Huh? Oh... hello, little miss, I'm, uh... a weapon master, why do you ask?" Imic answered, trying to sound friendly despite having spent the whole morning with an unmotivated pack of unskilled, undisciplined soldiers.

"I wanna be a weapon mas'ser when I grow up! What does a weapon mas'ser do? Mis'ser, what does he do?" The child looked at Imic with awe. She didn't expect to run into the weapon master himself, but becoming a weapon master would be even better than being just a regular soldier.

"You can't be a..." Imic stopped. Obviously as a girl Asithi would never become a weapon master, but crushing a child's dreams isn't what a champion of justice would do. "I'm tasked with protecting the overseer, but I'm not working alone, I have a squad of... elite warriors under my command,"

"That's what a cap'n does! What do you do mis'ser? What? What, Mis'ser?" Asithi demanded a full answer, not some half-hearted beating around the bush.

"I... what do I do? I guess I make demands, but... Yeah, I make suggestions to the overseer about making things that the town needs the most." The weapon master tried to make his 'privilege' sound impressive, but Asithi didn't look impressed. "I'll demonstrate!"




"Go and tell overseer SQ that we can safely export floodgates now, and also we need a crown. This is your first mission, don't disappoint me." Imic didn't seriously expect Asithi to follow the order, but the girl saluted, turned around on her heel, and ran underground. The weapon master thought to himself: "I'll have to make it up to miss SQ after that."

---

SQ and Darkening Kaos were having a pleasant conversation in SQ's office. Tea and strawberry cake were involved.

"...It's not like I hate her, just the opposite in fact. I admire her, but she's the kind of person you'd rather admire from far away." Kaos explained her relations with Yetine Tamelies, the legendary wound healer. "Unrelated, but do you have any plans for the caverns? You had me making those serrated discs for a new safe entrance, and suddenly you tell the masons to block the doors completely."

"Well, I really want to put some cage traps in there, but look what's been happening in there: most soldiers cough blood from touching a forgotten beast's blood, the trolls are shaken because of all those cave pygmy chunks lying around, Scourge still complains that her arm feels stiff after her meeting with a reason stealer." SQ explained. "It's just a matter of time until something even worse comes out of there, like mind flayers or aboleths."



"If there were aboleths in our caverns, they wouldn't have left us be for this long. Come on, we have thirty competent warriors armed by yours truly, so if you keep people from wandering around looking for webs, everything should be just fine." Kaos said enthusiastically, but then she felt the need to explain her excitement: "I just really want this trap corridor built, okay? I haven't been making giant sawblades to sell to those freaky fish people or the scumbags from Murknightmare."

"I'll think about it, but first I want to..."

"Mis'ress oh-ver-sire! Mis'ress!" A squeaky voice interrupted the conversation. Nobody saw or heard Asithi come in, making her sudden appearance startling to say the least. "Mis'ser weapon mas'ser said we can ex-port flooding gates! An' he wants a crown!"

"Don't sneak up on us like that, Asithi!" SQ scolded the child, then waited for her to leave. She was getting nervous when the girl continued to stand in place, looking at her. "I'll tell Imic to make his crown himself, you can go now. I think your mom is in the menagerie, why don't you go to her?"

"Mis'ress, what does an oh-ver-sire do? I wanna be an oh-ver-sire too! Mis'ress!" Asithi inquired.

"Over my dead body." SQ muttered under her breath.

"SQ, what was that? She's five at most!" Kaos whispered.

"Being an overseer is not that pleasant at all. I have to listen to people's complaining, my orders are often ignored, I sometimes drown in paperwork, I get all the blame if something happens to merchants." SQ was obviously trying to discourage Asithi from pursuing her career. It was so painfully obvious that Kaos couldn't help but roll her eyes. "I think you'd make a great rothegirl though, just like your mother. I'm a little busy right now, so talk to Scourge about this, she's the second in command in the menagerie."

Asithi saluted like a little soldier, then ran off without saying a word.

---

Asithi, a drowling on a mission, was running up the staircase to the menagerie. When she was on the right level, she heard noises coming from upstairs, as if someone dropped a pile of heavy items on the ground. As a future overseer and weapon mistress, Asithi had to investigate.

"THE MATERIALS HAVE BEEN GATHERED, NOW IF ONLY I HAD A WITNESS TO BEHOLD MY CREATION..." A spirit shouted through Tharumi Squashhates the jeweler. Then he noticed Asithi looking at him from across the corridor. "YOU, CHILD SKULKING THERE! YOU ARE ABOUT TO WITNESS THE IMPOSSIBLE! THE CREATION OF AN ARTIFACT SO MAGNIFICENT THAT... HEY, COME BACK HERE!" The girl had no interest in such distractions. She was carrying crucial orders, so she couldn't risk falling into an enemy's trap. Tharumi started working reluctantly, disappointed that nobody will see the effects of his work.



---

Scourge was standing by the rothe enclosure, overseeing their marking for slaughter. Lerine Doombranded was inside the enclosure, marking the animals with silver moon dye. As much as it pained Scourge, there were just too many rothe, and culling the smaller, weaker ones would do good for both the animals and the food and textile industry.



"Lerine, I don't wanna kill rothe! We could just geld some bulls to slow down the growth of the herd." Scourge felt bad for the rothe. She knew that no amount of begging would postpone the order any further, but she felt a strong need to express her displeasure.

"Scourge, you know how hard it was to convince SQ to let us mark eight rothe instead of ten?" Lerine asked, sprinkling another rothe with silver powder. "She's always so timid, I didn't expect her to get so... assertive. Does she always get like this on her 'time of the month'?"

"Hah, nice, I gotta use that one one day. But no, it's not that. SQ's been in a foul mood since her meeting with the outpost liaison, and honestly, I think I should have a word with her before she gets some silly idea." Scourge said. Suddenly she felt someone pulling her robe's sleeve. She looked down to see Asithi looking at her with fierce determination. "Oh, Asithi! Glad you decided to drop in, adorable little things like you are always welcome here. I think your mom is taking care of the abrians right now, so why don't you wait here with me and Lerine?"

"Mis'ress, I wanna be a rothegirl! I wanna ride a lizard an' throw lasso an' shoot rothe stealers an'... an'..." The girl was so excited she forgot she had no idea what else rothe herders did, but that wasn't enough to curb her enthusiasm.

"That's cute, but we don't do free-range anymore, so there's no need for lassos and revolvers. I could use a lasso and a revolver though... Never mind that! If you wanna become a modern rothegirl like me, SQ or your mother, you have to adhere to three simple rules." Scourge cracked her knuckles, overjoyed that she could once again recite the rules she made up over a hundred years ago. "First, you need to respect all animals, not only rothe. That means you should learn about their behavior, be diligent in taking care of them, and not take their docility for granted. Can you do that?"

"Yes mis'ress! Mommy already taught me how to milk a spider!"

"Excellent! Now rule number two: be cute as a button. If your mom can do that, you shouldn't have any trouble."

Lerine's muffled voice suddenly came from under the tightly packed mass of rothe. "I'm not cute, I'm ruggedly hadsome!"

"Keep telling yourself that, sweet cheeks!" Scourge smirked at where she assumed Lerine was, then went back to explaining rules to Asithi: "The third rule: you need to be twelve or older. I lowered it to seven once, but that was an exception. Come back in seven years and I'll make you my personal assistant."

For most drows seven years wasn't long at all, but for Asithi it was literally more than she could imagine. She couldn't be a weapon mistress, she couldn't be a house overseer, she couldn't even be a rothegirl, so what was left for her to do? She looked at her toy sword and everything became obvious - she could still pretend to be a knight slaying vile unicorns and foul pixies.

---



"IT'S DONE! IT'S... I GUESS I'LL JUST GO, HMPH!" The spirit grumbled before leaving Tharumi's body." Wait, what am I doing here? I was... Woah!"



Tharumi couldn't believe his own eyes. Before him stood a cage of pure pyrope, intricately decorated with masterfully worked metal, stone, wool and bone. The decorations included architectural and animal motifs, foundation of Dungeonevened twice, and a priestess of an eldritch entity becoming an outpost matriarch in Murknightmare.
The jeweler wouldn't have believed he was the author of this work if not for the fact that he was still holding tools in his hands and there was nobody around.

---

"We've got cage traps and giant sawblades, what next? You know there's no such thing like overkill when dealing with monsters." Darkening Kaos was extatic knowing that her idea for a trap corridor has been approved.

The young mechanic's excitement quickly spread to SQ. "How about huge retracting spikes?" The overseer suggested. "All best dungeons have spike traps. And swinging axe blades! And monsters! Let's pitch monsters against monsters!"

"Monster on monster action? Great idea! The spikes are too simple though, I don't like taking the easy route. Maybe giant corkscrews instead? Or, imagine, enchanted metal snake heads like those in scourges of fangs!"

"Yeah, sounds fantastic, let's finish the tea and get making this entrance! If Fred isn't busy we can heve it done by the evening!"

Knocking on the door interrupted the conversation. Without waiting to be let in, Fred the Mitey entered the office as if he hed been waiting outside for his name to be mentioned. In fact, that was exactly what he was doing.
"Not so fast, overseer!" The administrator exclaimed dramatically. "Are you aware how much work the miners have in their hands?"





"We're done with the new dining hall, which was a big job, and now we're expanding the menagerie as you ordered, then we'll be making room for carpenter's and mason's workshops..." Fred listed. "There was also the dungeon mistress and her... unorthodox request."



Fred was already a bit flustered after mentioning Yetine's order, but he became even more so and admitted: "That, and I must have also sold all trap components you made at some point, Kaos, because I couldn't find any when checking the stocks..."

"You were eavesdropping, waiting for a chance to make a dramatic entrance?" SQ asked in disbelief, ignoring everything Fred said. "What's next? You're going to create an alter-ego and start narrating everything you do?"

"Let me take this one, SQ." Kaos suggested. The overseer wanted to protest, but she realized  she had nothing constructive to say. Kaos continued: "That's a lot of metal wasted. How much of what do we have left?"

"I've got a list somewhere... just a second... here!" The administrator pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket.



"We've got loads of gleaming chitin, a good amount of silver, some refined and hardened chitin... huh, looks like we're low on diamondium again. At least the Blackguards are fully equipped now. The wagon that crashed carried some ore, but I don't think there was a lot of that." Fred analyzed the list closely.

"Gleaming chitin is too brittle for... for anything, really. Okay, I'll keep making chitin sawblades, but I want someone assigned to making silver hammers down in the forges." Kaos requested.

""Hey, I'm the overseer here!" SQ reminded, putting down her teacup. "Kaos, you keep making chitin sawblades. Fred, get someone making silver hammers in the forges. If your miners weren't so busy, I'd have you send them to the mines to get some more chitin. I'm going to the menagerie to make sure Scourge isn't trying to rescue any rothe."

---



Athara Dieabyss left the abrian paddock visibly disturbed. Although it's logical to be disturbed by monsters from lower planes, abrians never bothered her to that day.

SQ, Scourge and Lerine were discussing the latest expansion of the menagerie and what enclosures needed to be built first, when suddenly they noticed their shocked colleague.
"Hey, Athara! We were just having a meeting, if you can call it that. We'd appreciate your input, so... did something happen?" Scourge asked upon noticing Athara's expression."

"Did... Did you know abrians are sentient?" The woman muttered.

"W-what? They don't talk, h-how do you know they can think?" SQ asked, hoping that Athara was wrong.

"I had one for lunch yesterday! We all ate abrian meat at some point!" Lerine started panicking, more because he found eating sentients disgusting than because it was immoral.

"E-everybody calm down! There's one simple solution for this!" Athara attempted to calm dow the menagerie staff. "Forget I told you about it, and under no circumstance let anyone know!"

---

The folowing month was seemingly very calm. Seemingly because mussel gatherers, corpse haulers and surface farmers were often voicing their concerns about sounds they described as 'savage howling' coming from the distance. Those complaints were dismissed by every drow in power, after all the woods were a home to many creatures that could make such noises.
One day the howling started getting louder and louder until finally:



A gigantic ape from distant frozen lands appeared on the horizon, falling trees on its way with its bare hands, crushing rocks under its feet, looking furiously at the walls of Dungeonevened. The town was on the Saumen Kar's way and it had to be destroyed.



Helmet Snakes and Steel Samurais gathered by the western gate. The monster could just vault over the wall, but even then it would have no choice but to face the drows.



Freshcannon was calm, even happy about the attack. Both major monster attacks were finished by her axe, this one was supposed to end the same way. That's what gods wanted.




The monster noticed a crowd of tiny black creatures in shiny shells from the distance. It walked slowly not to startle them, because stomping on them all at the same time would be much more satisfying than squishing them one after another. Once Baranue crossed the gate, the small creatures started waving their arms. The Saumen Kar thought it was their way of begging for mercy. It chuckled to itself in a deep guttoral voice. The situation stopped being funny when the monster's fur started glowing brightly.
Baranue was confused, but it was quickly forced to snap out by sharp pain in its right foot. Melici the Silver Samurai dealt the first blow, cutting deeply and forcing the monster to shift its whole weight to the left leg. Asin took advantage of that situation and slammed his fist into Baranue's left foot, cusing it to fall over.



Freshcannon made sure the monster wouldn't stand up by crushing its foot's bones, and later she did the same with its left hand. She had this kill in the bag. Or so she thought.



Baranue was unconscious, lying in the pool of its own blood, with twenty drows trying to pierce its thick skull. Finally a powerful stab turned the monster's fractured head into a rain of blood and bone shards.

Melici couldn't bring herself to pull the sword out of Baranue's brain, she wanted that moment to last forever. Killing a beast that huge would surely win her respect of other soldiers. Suddenly she felt someone putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Get inside or you'll get sunburnt again, freak." Freshcannon faked concern, but it was obvious she was upset over losing a major kill.

---



One of the soldiers wasn't in a festive mood after the fall of Baranue. Slevina Faintfolds, one of the Helmet Snakes, couldn't contol himself anymore. He was still dwelling upon being thirsty a year ago, Ombragon's masterful meals weren't good enough for him, a troglodyte bone he saw the other day was still creeping him out, he was sure SQ wasn't listening to him when he was complaining. All those horrible things caused Slevina to release his frustration on the nearest drow.



Lunardog was feeling second-hand embarrassment for Slevina. A trained warrior should be able to hurt him, not just give him a few bruises. Instead of fighting back, the farmer just backed away at which Slevina reacted by rolling on the ground and shouting obscenities.

---



First day of spring, SQ and Scourge were sitting outside watching the sunrise.

"Another year passed and we're still alive, can you believe it?" SQ muttered, deep in thought. "How long have we been here, four years? It feels so much shorter..."

"Not really, a lot of stuff has been going on. Although I get why you would say that." Scourge stood up and looked down at her friend with an exaggerated thinking expression. "I fell in love, got married, and I'm going to have a baby very soon. You haven't had much going on on the romantic front."

SQ got up too, not very interested in continuing the conversation. Before she could disappear underground, voices from behind the walls grabbed her attention. "S-Scourge, can you hear it?"

"Yeah, and I don't like it..."

---



Uthimi Shockhell was slowly backing off along the wall. She had no idea who or what the people in front of her were, but she didn't like the way they spoke to her:

"Come to us, skinless elf, you will fit right in! Our family is always looking for new members! Ha ha ha!"







Uthimi was lucky she was blind, because creatures she was facing were some of the most grotesque. Suddenly she heard shouting from the other side of the wall. It was SQ calling for Freshcannon and Asin. Uthimi decided to trust the overseer's judgement and ran as fast as she could without tripping.



Unfortunately her fastest wasn't fast enough. A diminutive clown threw a hatchet that hit her in the back and lodged itself in her kidney. Uthimi was sure this was her end when suddenly...

"Hey, freaks, need a strong man in your circus? I've got plenty of mussels!" MottledPetrel shouted, flexing his feeble muscles, holding a mussel in his hand.
The monsters were not amused, but at least they helped Petrel discover a talent for dodging axes, BB gun pellets and fireballs.




This talent went unused, unfortunately, because once the large clown caught up with the fisherman it was all over. The horrible mechanical saw could tear through drow flesh with no resistance, and Petrel happened to be made entirely of drow flesh.



The fisherman's sacrifice was futile. A many-armed freak smashed Uthimi's head with a cane. Whatever the entertainers wanted to do with Petrel's and Uthimi's corpses was interrupted by the arrival of Snakes and Samurais. The soldiers had no time to be shocked by the monstrous appearance of their enemies or death of their friends, because it was time to kill.



Tharumi, an inexperienced swordsman, charged straight at the leader of the pack, a spearclown, and impaled him on his sword. Tharumi expected something more from a monster clown, but he didn't complain.



To the clown's dismay, Biretha the swordsnake appeared with a grin more sinister than any clown could have. He started slowly disassembling the evil entertainer, removing left foot, right leg, and right arm.



The hatchet-throwing dwarf clown charged at tharumi to protect its master, but due to its comical size he just bounced off. To add insult to injury, or rather injury to insult, Tharumi cut off the mini clown's leg.



Biretha got bored of playing with the clown, so he took a wide swing and lodged his scimitar halfway through the entertainer's head. Surprisingly it was enough to kill the monster, despite the widespread rumor that monster clowns are hard to dispatch.



The fire-breather attempted to cut the most fearsome enemy into tiny pieces, but Biretha managed to block even the fearsome chainsaw. Oquari the duelist took the chance and stabbed the dragon-like freak in the foot, causing incredibly complex injury. The monster was still standing, even if barely, but...



...Biretha slashed so hard that the fire-eater lost his balance and fell over.



The mini clown's misfortune wasn't over. The next person to stumble upon him was Melici who took great pleasure in tormenting the weak. She wondered how much of the clown's body could be turned into mush before the creature finally dies. Unfortunately Tharumi was nearby, and to get an easy kill to his name, he chopped off the clown's head.
The fire-eater met the same fate as his dwarf colleague, but the final blow was performed by Biretha.



The sword-swallower readied her BB gun, took aim and... was forcibly positioned by Freshcannon in a way that it was easy to chop her head off with a single swing. A split second before death she started to question her choice of weapons. Surely, a sword-swallower should use a sword, not a gun.



The juggler was unreasonably hard to kill. The whole military force of Dungeonevened was wailing on the many-armed creature, and it had the audacity to brag about its combat skills. Finally Biretha made a deep horizontal cut in the juggler's ribcage, slicing through lungs and heart.



The ambush took lives of two civilian drows, one of which was a founder of Dungeonevened, but seeing how one of the entertainers could breathe fire, the soldiers have agreed that the losses were acceptable.
A great fire from a stray fireball was started on the other side of the river, but it was unlikely to spread across.

---



"Okay everybody, you know the drill - you bring trash, I sell it to fishmen!" Fred the Mitey explained once again. It was finally time to get rid of some useless garbage littering the town. Hopefully the pelagics won't mind seeing dead clowns. "Wait, the western gate is closed? Who did that?"

"One of your projects required it, or so we though." One of the miners said. "But apparently the bridge would collapse if we dug too close so we'll have to deconstruct it altogether."

"Could you please raise the bridge?"

"And risk squishing the merchants?"

"Good point."



"They went into the river! If they don't come out..." Fred crossed his fingers hoping there wouldn't be another diplomatic disaster.

"They are fish and their pack animals are crabs, calm down." The miner had his fingers crossed too, just in case.

"They're carrying food, booze and paper! I'm not eating river scum cheese!"

---



SQ and Athara were carrying a cage from the menagerie's storeroom to the trade depot, when suddenly something caught SQ's attention.
"Athara, look! The egg sac is broken! Giant spiders have hatched!"

"Could we take care of it later? Don't drop the..." Before Athara finished the sentence, SQ has dropped the cage and ran up to the enclosure. "Come on, I wanna get rid of those jammed cages!"

"And I don't want the spiderlings to escape. Three females, great! Now you stay here, little things, I'll be back in a minute." SQ said cheerfully, still ignorant of MottledPetrel's death. She locked the door tightly and went back to carrying the cage.

---



The drows of Dungeonevened exchanged crafts and tattered clothes for metal bars, animals, cages, bags and paper. Large amount of items were given to the pelagics as an offering. Fred couldn't guess what the fish people were feeling by their expressions or body language, but he assumed they were overjoyed.

---

"So... are we taking them straight to the store room or what?" Athara asked SQ.

"No, we examine what we got and share our knowledge. Normally Scourge says something dirty or hits on me at some point when we do this." SQ explained. "I... I don't expect you to do that, I'm just saying!"



"Another pig, well fed, really twitchy." SQ observed closely, but not too closely.

"Oversized tusks with no sign of wear. Reacts aggressively to even smallest movement. It was bred for battle, no doubt about that."

"You know what's weird? There are pig boars and pig sows, but also wild boars and wild boar sows. Shouldn't it be wild sows?" The overseer asked, hoping for a humorous answer.

"That was random... No, if it was supposed to be like that, it would be like that."

"Ugh, good enough."



"That's a huge lizard! It's like a better version of our riding lizards!" SQ exclaimed.

"It looks like a monitor lizard. The common ones hunt small animals, while the bigger ones can take down a fully grown buffalo. This one could swallow a buffalo whole."

"Can't wait to see it in action. I'm feeding carnivores today!"

"Suit yourself."



"Looks like a common kea but purple. Should we give it a wash? I think we might have got scammed." SQ looked suspiciously at one of the pelagics. The fish person inflated his throat for a few seconds, then continued staring blankly."

"Or maybe there happen to be multiple species of parrots that look alike?"

"Where's your imagination? Is Scourge going to be like you when she becomes a mother?"

"I just don't think that angering those guys is a good idea."



"A land octopus, not something you see everyday." SQ reached out to get some slime from the mollusk, but Athara stopped her.

"Were you going to get octopus slime on my clothes, young lady?"

"N-no..."

"Don't lie to me!"

"Yes, I'm sorry mom... I mean, Athara..."

---

A small crowd of drows gathered in front of the hospital.

"Oh, it's so frustrating! I can't shake the feeling I should be at Petrel's funeral! He was one of the founders of this town! He supplied the expedition with fish and fed us mussels!" SQ felt horrible. How would Petrel react to one of his friend ignoring his funeral if he was alive? He would probably be okay with that, but SQ wasn't. On the other hand Scourge and Imic were alive and they could actually get offended. Having multiple friends was so difficult for the overseer."

"How many time have you actually talked with that guy?" Lunardog asked. "I mean, there was always something fishy about him, but I don't eel he would be shellfish enough to demand people who barely knew him to mourn him."

"Gods, I know that's how you deal with difficult situations, but have some respect! For Petrel and for us!" Kaos couldn't help but cringe at Lunardog's inappropriate fish-related puns, but she did understand the need to lighten up the mood. "Anyway, anyone have any guesses what Scourge and Imic will neme the baby?"

"Either Asithi or Melici, statistically speaking." Fred the Mitey answered without a shadow of doubt in his voice. "Biretha and Weri are also likely, with Litheme and Tharumi closely behind."

"Scourge would never choose a common name like that." SQ said. "Maybe something rare like Zecalo, Meli, or something completely out there like Cacame or Yitana."

"Knowing her it could as well be Urist or Tekkud, though I'm not sure Imic would be too happy with that. Heh... Urist, heh heh..." ZM5 couldn't stop giggling. He imagined a baby with a full beard and a horned helmet holding a bottle of ale. Those silly dwarves...

"What if it's an albino?" SQ suggested excitedly.

"You know that's a disorder, not some kind of blessing, right?" Kaos asked just to be sure. "The red stripe across Melici's face is sunburn, not some fancy warpaint..."

"Oh... I knew that!" SQ lied. "Anyway, how much longer can it take? Is she having triplets or something?"

"Gods, I hope not! I barely accepted the idea of two Scourges running around the town, I couldn't take four of them!" Lunardog said half-serously.

Finally the door opened and completely drained Nunore fell out. She didn't smell like wine, so this must have been Scourge's doing.
"Oww... Y-you should give me... give her a few minutes to rest after the whole ordeal." The barkeep-turned-midwife muttered. "Even if she manages to run up to the door and lets you in, you should just tell her to go back to bed... She's really good at forcing a smile... better than me, and I'm amazing at... Ugh, just let me go to bed already!"

---

Half an hour later SQ decided that waiting for Nunore's permission to visit Scourge was a stupid idea, and since she didn't like crowds, going to the hospital a little bit early would be good for everyone involved.

As soon as Scourge heard the door opening she put on her widest grin. She was surprised to see SQ alone, but by no mean upset.
"SQ! I was wondering when you'll drop by!" Scourge half-shouted half-whispered not to wake up the baby in her arms or Imic sleeping in the next bed. "If only you could see Imic's face, he was changing colors like... something that changes colors often! From black to grey to white to green to red! Nunore lasted longer, but she went straight to a weird shade of blue... Oh, where are my manners! SQ, meet Rithesa Nightscorched, my daughter!"



The baby was undoubtedly a healthy newborn drow, with black skin, a lock of white hair and pointy ears.

"I see she has your... ears." SQ remembered this was something people say to young mothers, but then she remembered Scourge didn't like when people commented on her short ears. "I mean, I can totally see your features in her. A-and Imic's of course!"

"You're not very good at this, you know?" Scourge chuckled. "I have to admit something: I wasn't sure if I'm a mother material at first. People tell me I'm too childish, too immature, too impulsive... What if they're right? But then I think about how much I went through with you, and I have no doubt little Rithesa will turn out just fine. Maybe just a little bit weird."

"Scourge... I'm really..." SQ wanted to say something, anything, but words got stuck in her throat. She felt tears appearing in her eyes.

"S-scourge... next time you give birth could you scream like all women do instead of..." Imic grumbled, getting up from bed. "Oh, miss SQ, hello! Scourge already told you everything you should know, I believe? I can't believe I became a father... Just a few years ago I was just a hopeless city guard reject beaten into pavement by a pack of rats. Not to sound ungrateful, but it's even better than being a house weapon master."

"Aren't you taking it too far, Imic? Even, let's say, Biretha could be a father, but weapon master is a prestigious title. Or maybe I just don't get all this pathos around parenthood? I was hoping I would once I become a mother, but..." Scourge stopped and looked at SQ. "Looks like you had too much strong emotions for such a short moment, SQ. Could you tell others they're good to come visit me here? I know Nunore said something about her supervision, but I don't care what she has to say. And, uh... I know how bad this sounds, but tell Five not to get close to Rithesa, will you? The last thing I want is my firstborn puking blood from birth. He'll understand."

SQ walked out still unable to say a word. Only then did she realized what a colossal change just happened in her life.



I intended this to be a peaceful update, but look, a named drow was killed by clowns. And here I was considering a subplot for Petrel...
Anyway, we've killed a semimegabeast and I feel really bad about this. Why? Because this semimegabeast's parents were both monsters of legends with dozens of kills while Baranue only became a historical character after she was killed by Melici. She never got to sow terror among vilagers.
And yeah, Scourge has given birth to a baby girl. I was really hoping she would get one of the super-common names.
Also I learned that abrians in D&D are sentient, just not very intelligent, and they don't talk much. Kinda like dwarves. Squamous made them non-sentient in one of his mods, so our drows will happily eat them.

Darkening Kaos

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - The circus is in town! (not this circus)
« Reply #142 on: October 02, 2018, 06:15:24 pm »

     Hmmmm. A trap corridor.  Such a thing conjures up just one word - Overkill.

     "Yesssss. Overkill", Darkening Kaos returns to her forge to contemplate making trap components and other weapons to put into floor traps.  There will be many...
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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...

ZM5

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - The circus is in town! (not this circus)
« Reply #144 on: October 03, 2018, 04:07:36 am »

Removing wagon puller should work on an existing world. May also try giving them NOFEAR and innate discipline - I think I use those for the semi-sentient wagon pullers like Eliminators or Ucas.

Holy fuck, that circus freak attack. I definitely did want them to be brutal but, man, I wasn't expecting this level of madness, murder and dismay. Poor Petrel and Uthimi.

Atleast it ended on a heartwarming note with scourge and Imic's daughter.
« Last Edit: October 03, 2018, 04:28:54 am by ZM5 »
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Fleeting Frames

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - The circus is in town! (not this circus)
« Reply #145 on: October 03, 2018, 08:23:16 am »

Poor cave roaches.

The tale of Asithi LIegills was pretty neat alternate perspective, even though I didn't like it much in Bravemule. I think handling things in the present is better, no narrator immunity.

I also wasn't aware Imic made such terrible mandates.

Red Pyrope cage is rather nice (idea), drows can admire it and the creature inside; I like such dual-purpose objects. I think I may make some decorated cages instead of statues.

Smoothed floors in dining hall?

These clowns seem like something of a class cannons from the descriptions (though not from how long it took the whole military to kill the last one), much like vanilla fire imps. How good is aether as material?

There are cases where children are more mature than their parents, I suppose.

SQman

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - The circus is in town! (not this circus)
« Reply #146 on: October 15, 2018, 02:52:06 pm »


Removing wagon puller should work on an existing world. May also try giving them NOFEAR and innate discipline - I think I use those for the semi-sentient wagon pullers like Eliminators or Ucas.

Holy fuck, that circus freak attack. I definitely did want them to be brutal but, man, I wasn't expecting this level of madness, murder and dismay. Poor Petrel and Uthimi.

Atleast it ended on a heartwarming note with scourge and Imic's daughter.

When I think about it, I haven't seen a single Uca, even though I trade with pelagics. Both pelagics and skeletons use only giant crabs from various mods...

I don't know about the entertainers being that brutal. All things considered, they gave Petrel and Uthimi a rather quick death. All in all only a fisherman and a blind, scarred woodcrafter were killed, which was a good outcome in a fight with monsters that throww acid pies and fireballs.

Poor cave roaches.

I also wasn't aware Imic made such terrible mandates.

Red Pyrope cage is rather nice (idea), drows can admire it and the creature inside; I like such dual-purpose objects. I think I may make some decorated cages instead of statues.

Smoothed floors in dining hall?

These clowns seem like something of a class cannons from the descriptions (though not from how long it took the whole military to kill the last one), much like vanilla fire imps. How good is aether as material?

I gave up on trying to give my drow a roach now. SQ was constantly releasing them, then some other drow, mostly Scourge for some reason, would run into the roach room to lock them up.

Imic likes crowns and floodgates. He actually made the crown himself, even though I haven't specified it. It was a masterwork cragtooth boar ivory crown.

I considered putting the artifact cage in the grand matriarch's throne room and put a prisoner of some kind inside, but we might not get a grand matriarch at all, so I'm waiting for suggstions what to do.

What's wrong with smoothed floors? A dining hall should have high value, and I'm not doing a mahogany parquet this time. I'll get some engravings done later if I don't forget.

The clowns are very much glass cannons. I can't really read weapon raws, but from what I've seen the chainsaw was devastating, severing limbs with no problem. Their interactions are extremely dangerous too, but they haven't hit anything with them this time. Well, except for torching half of the map with a stray fireball, but that's it.
Aether is garbage on its own, but alloys with copper to make hettlion. I have no idea what hettlion is like.



Early in the morning the entire nobility and administration of Dungeonevened gathered in the Mahogany Hall. Not a single person knew why they were called there, but they were either very curious, or simply couldn't refuse Nunore's pleading. Despite how desperate the barmaid seemed the previous day, she kept the drow elite waiting. Was it a strategic move of some kind or was it just an attempt to make a dramatic entry?

"That good for nothing harlot is just trying to waste our valuable time! Why are we even keeping her here? She does nothing but sit in this roach-infested excuse for a tavern and gives men impure thoughts!" Asithi said suspiciously nervously. "Can we just go? I have things to do!"

The cleric was surprised when the others didn't share her opinion. Fred the Mitey was the first to speak up. "I'm sorry, priestess... No, wait, I'm not sorry. She was the one who set up my hip after you broke it! You were too busy throwing a tantrum!"

"She also did most of the work when Scourge got injured, then she helped deliver our child. Earlier she patched up my leg when a mongrelman bit through my greaves." Imic added.

"She really deserves to be listened to." SQ summed up. "If it wasn't anything serious, she wouldn't have called all of us here. If only she was here with us to discuss the matter."

The door to the tavern opened and Nunore came in. She seemed winded as if she was hurrying to the meeting, but her perfect hair and make-up was a dead giveaway about what was the actual priority for her.

"S-sorry for turning up late! I don't expect the gentlemen to understand, but the ladies should know how important it is for a woman to prepare for the day." Nunore smiled as pleasantly as her state allowed her and looked around to see the other drows' reactions.

"Oh, I can relate to you." Freshcannon said sarcastically, but then she pulled out her comb and started combing her hair, pretending what she had just said wasn't hypocrytical.

"Okay, let's not beat around the bush anymore. The house cleric's duty is to take care of well-being of her people." The barkeep started.

"I know what you're getting to, and you better hope you never end up in the hospital." Asithi growled defensively.

"I'm just saying you caused more injuries than you healed, and you haven't organized any kind of town guard or whatever. I, on the other hand, do most of the work in the hospital, and I'm sure I'd be able to convince people to..."

"Blasphemy! You're not even a priestess! If you say one more word I'll have you thrown into jail and fed only rancid mussels and water from a stagnant pool! Not to mention the whipping you'll get!" Asithi seethed with anger, something she did pretty often lately.

"Woah there! That's mah job, ain't it? Ah take orders from the top brass only, like the oh-va-seer here." Yetine protested, directing all the attention to SQ at the same time.

The overseer felt the stares of the drows, and she didn't feel comfortable with that. She knew she had to make a decision quickly, because every second increased the chance she would break down under the pressure. Without taking a second to think it over she blurted out: "Nunore is right, Asithi needs to go."

"What?" Asithi snapped.

"What?" Nunore snapped too. "I never suggested... I just..."

"You're a house cleric now, Nunore. Imic, Asin, take Asithi away. She must leave Dungeonevend as soon as possible." SQ was terrified by what she was saying, but the words were just flowing from her mouth.

"You can't banish me! The high priestess will hear about it, and the grand matriarch will know shortly after! You won't avoid divine retribution!" Asithi threatened as Imic and Asin dragged her out of the tavern.

Nobody dared to say anything for a good minute. Everything was happening so quickly everyone needed some time to think about the implications of it all. The silence was broken by Freshcannon. "Good riddance. Believe it or not, but she's been questioning my competence as a house priestess for some time now. Yeah, I guess I do more work than most priestesses do." She then looked at Nunore who was still wondering if she should be feeling guilty. "You, barkeep! We have some rituals to do before I can make you an acolyte. I wonder if you can fit in Melici's old vestments..."

"Huh?" Nunore's look of nervous confusion turned into a look of pure shock.

"What? You can't be a house cleric without being a part of the church. Don't worry, a lot of priestesses back at Murknightmare sleep around and nobody bats an eye. You don't need to change your habits." Freshcannon pushed the newly appointed cleric out, assumedly to her office.



It took SQ two more minutes to come to her senses. She was surprised nobody left yet, so she decided to change it. "W-we're done here, every-everybody go back to work!"

---

In the fisherman's guildhall a different meeting was taking place. Asithi, the new guildmaster was adressing his underlings, including new members. He was actually the least happy to be there, and the fact that he didn't bother to wear a shirt and was still wearing a sleep mask strapped over his forehead was a clear enough sign that he was going to end the meeting quickly and go back to sleep.
"Okay, I'm the guildmaster now that the old man got chopped up into pieces..."



"...Anyone has a problem with that?"

One of the fishermen raised his hand slowly, but Asithi looked at him dismissively, so he gave up on voicing his opinion.

"Nobody? Good. Now that Petrel is dead and Weri wandered off gods know where, we'd have to work extra hard to feed the entire town." Asithi expected to hear disappointed groaning, but none of the fishermen could be bothered to do even that. "We would have, so instead I asked the administrator to find me four eager drows to join our guild. I'd introduce them, but I have no idea who they are. Anyway, I don't wanna die a horrible death, so I registered us as a military unit. We'll get weapons when the Kaos girl gets round to making them."



"Wait, weren't you a woman?" Oquari, another veteran fisherman asked. "I was convinced you were Petrel's daughter..."

"I get that a lot..."

(I was sure Asithi was a woman, but apparently he's not. Oh well...)

---

Emura Raceddemon wasn't the most busy out of all drows, in fact he was a full-time engraver, so it wasn't very often that he could use his skills in actual work. To keep himself occupied, Emura was doing random hauling jobs around the lower parts of the town.



The engraver glanced at a boulder he was pushing. That was it, the spark of inspiration Emura needed. He looked around to check if nobody was looking at him, then kissed the rock in gratitude for enlightening him.

---

"...So you didn't take her to the barracks, big deal. You did bring her aboveground! What if light damages her eyes? What if an eagle swooped down and snatched her? What if a snatcher... I don't even want to think about it!" Scourge's motherly instinct kicked in with full force, and unfortunately Imic has found himself on the receiving end. He was supposed to take care of Rithesa until the menagerie caretakers finish pasturing animals in new enclosures. While Scourge immediately realized those animals may be dangerous to a baby, it took her some time to remember her husband was a soldier. She dragged SQ with her against her will for extra authority.

"Scourge, it's my duty to defend the whole town, I think I'm more than capable to protect our daughter from whatever eagles are and kobolds. Besides, the longer we keep her in darkness the more painful it will be for her to get accustomed to sunlight later. I'm more responsible than I seem, really." Imic tried to reassure Scourge, but that didn't seem to work.

"Whatever, just hand her over." Scourge demanded. Imic complied without any further objections. "Thank you. SQ, we gotta change the plan - the megalania isn't getting close to Rithesa, we'll have to pasture something cute and cuddly."

"Fine, I think we can do that, but..." SQ hesitated, but then went on: "you could go on a maternity leave and take... care... of..." The overseer stopped, intimidated by Scourge's disapproving look.

"Are we, by any chance, interrupting something?"



"T-tharumi?" Scourge stuttered upon seeing the newly arrived woman.

"Tharumi!" SQ exclaimed. "I haven't seen you since you requested to be moved to the reptile section of the menagerie! It was... seventy something or eighty years ago!"

"Yes, uh... that's a little awkward, isn't it." Tharumi started nervously rubbing her ear.

"A little... yeah." Scourge agreed. "Have you got over it already? I mean, I said I was sorry, and it was so long."

"I see you did." Tharumi gracefuly avoided the question. A baby in Scourge's arms was something she never expected to see, and yet... She had no idea what she was supposed to feel.

"Am I missing something?" Imic whispered to SQ.
"Scourge's ex-girfriend.." SQ claified.
"Oh, that explains a lot.."

"A-anyway, the menagerie in Murknightmare has been slowly dying since you two left. The war with crawlers is now a priority to the grand matriarch, so she cuts the costs wherever she can. I've decided I'd help you here instead of getting drafted and sent to my doom. I brought some people with me too." Tharumi pointed at the western gate. A crowd of nineteen drows were just walking through. "Some are really good specialists too: Obi Umbrawheel is an accomplished leatherworker, Obi Tunnelwhisper is a certified high mistress blacksmith, Rithesa Wickedfill is..."

"Rithesa Wicked..." Scourge interrupted. "In old elven that would be... Rithesa Rithesa-Lema. Imic, we should name our second child Weri Plagueplague."

"Miss Tharumi, if any of your acquaintances is interested in military service, I, as the weapon master, can accept one more soldier into my squad." Imic didn't want to sit back listening awkwardly. The migrants had to be processed sooner or later. "Our new house cleric will also be assembling some sort of town guard once she actually becomes an acolyte."

"We could also use some refuse haulers, general haulers, fisherdrows, fish cleaners..." SQ listed less-than-prestigious jobs. "Everyone can find something for themselves. By the way, have you brought animals?"

"We have a young ironhead." Thrumi answered.

"We have five of those already." SQ said proudly.

"Oh, somebody also has a baby molecow, but you probably already have a herd of those."



"Yeah, we totally do." The overseer lied blatantly.

"SQ, you know she'll be working with us? She'll notice we don't have a single molecow.Why would you lie about it anyway?" Scourge inquired. Machinations of SQ's mind were still a mystery to her after all those years.

---



Three large boulders of white quartzite, a few uncut opals, a sheet of brimstone-smelling abrian leather, a bale of smooth silkflower cloth, a couple of bars of soft steel, and several handfuls of assorted pebbles from abrian stomachs. Emura Raceddemon knew he could make a wondrous work of art with those rather mundane items, but he couldn't fully imagine the outcome of his work. There would be many unplanned changes, corrections, tweaks... There was no point in any further musing, there was an artifact to create.

A few hours later:



Emura, now a legendary engraver, was satisfied. It was no diamondium space suit, and most gem sockets were filled with regular rocks, but it was still of legendary craftsmanship. There was just one problem...



The image on the amulet was really small. Emura could make out something that was without a doubt a spike rat, but he completely forgot what the rest of tiny leather pieces were meant to represent. These were probably drows, but why were they surrounding the rat? Emura was done with the amulet, the interpretation was left to viewers.

---



The five animal trainers gathered by the abrian paddock. Tharumi looked at the infernal birds with curiosity, but SQ, Scourge, Athara and Lerine were tired of having to deal with them.

"How about we just kill the ones we caught and leave those born in captivity be?" SQ suggested. "Obviously we won't be the ones doing the killing, but you know what I mean."

"We've ran out of bones for the bone carvers too, which really shouldn't have happened considering how many rothe were slaughtered." Lerine added.

Everyone seemed to agree that abrians needed to die, so SQ pulled out her pen, a little inkwell and a crumbled piece of paper and started writing an order.

---

Freshcannon was leading Nunore to the new shrine to Quico the Target of Cudgels. The new house cleric was the most nervous she's ever been, not because she wanted to do her new job well, but because she had no idea what to do.

"Stop fidgeting like that, there's literally nothing that can go wrong! You're going to the shrine of one of your people's gods. You'll be watched by two, maybe three indifferent losers. When I was fresh out of neophyte training, I was assigned to busting skulls of dangerous cultists. That was something worth worrying about!" Freshcannon bragged. "By the way, Melici looked better in those vestments."

"Thanks a lot, mistress." Nunore felt even worse after hearing Freshcannon's excuse for a pep talk. "The thing is, I haven't gone through any training. All you did was to lock me in my room for an hour!"

"Normally I'd make you fast for two weks, whip you to teach you humility, then send you to the caverns for a month to check if you're in the top physical and mental shape. As fun as that sounds, we don't have that much time, so an hour of fasting, a slap on the back and an uncomfortably tight robe should be enough."

"But is that really..."

"Is that really what? I can arrange a full course right now if you don't appreciate my gesture! I can assure you, princess, that you wouldn't last to the end!" The priestess went from almost friendly to openly hostile in a second. Nunore was caught off guard, but she was much more collected than her shaking hands would have one believe.

"All right, mistress, I'm ready. Let's go."




"Nobody's here? I'll get those damn morons for this! They were supposed to watch you sanctify the shrine! Ah, whatever, just light an incense stick, say a few nice words to Quico and you're free to go." Freshcannon was disappointed - she wanted to see Nunore struggle with complicated rites, but there was still a lesson to be learnt: "Remember, a lot of things we priestesses do is just for show. Most people don't really believe in the Spider Queen and the rest of greater gods, but they respect women who can recite long, meaningless chants for some reason."

---



"Hey, boss! Damnit, she's not here. Hey, Asin!" Biretha desperately craved attention, and this time it had to be someone important, not just Melici. "Asin, look at this neat trick!" The swordsnake, having attracted the Steel Samurai's attention, started swinging his scimitar at Melici seemingly without any thought, but the Macesnake couldn't parry or block a single tap. Panicked and humiliated, Melici swung her mace at Biretha's legs, but it wasn't just a gentle tap. Biretha didn't expect retaliation, which resulted in him landing face first on the sawwood floor.

"That is... nice, Biretha-diri."

---



"You've done it once. Just go there and say what you must." Scourge whispered to SQ. It was time to announce the opening of the new tavern-slash-dining hall, Cavernhall, but this time it would be in front of a hundred people, not just twenty.

"It's so easy for you to say! I... I can't! There's just too many people!" SQ was ready to stay in the tavern forever just not to face the crowd. Considering how well the pantry was stocked, she would last about two months. "You're the overseer now, Scourge. I'll just start my life as a hermit in this very HEY DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!"

It was too late, Scourge has already let all the people in. There was significantly fewer drows than SQ and Scourge expected, but again, the grand opening wasn't exactly well advertised. SQ calmed down completely once she realized the ten people who did come went straight to the booze storage instead of waiting for a speech.

---

Athara Dieabyss was inspecting newly spawned mottleworms. The gigantic monsters were born fully formed and ready to multiply, so their population was expected to grow quickly. What wasn't expected was commotion from the occula enclosure. Tiny gelatinous creatures shouldn't make that much noise.




When Athara entered the paddock, she couldn't believe her own eyes. A diamondium-clad drow was standing before her, holding a dead occula in his hand. She knew what had to be done. Being the one in charge until SQ comes back, she was in posession of the key to all enclosures. Her own life was more valuable than a couple of parasites, so she backed away quickly and locked the crazed soldier inside.

A while later unexpected help has arrived. Freshcannon burst into the menagerie absolutely furious. Slevina Faintfolds was supposed to be training, not throwing a childish tantrum, torturing creatures that couldn't protect themselves. Athara led the priestess to the right place and opened the door. With an axe in hand Freshcannon entered the enclosure and approached Slevina.
"Don't you dare drawing your sword on me, soldier, do you understand? Yes? Good, I knew you have no balls to stand up to me. Now slowly hand over the sword, take off the armor and..."

The swordsman was more terrified than he was angry at the moment. As the house priestess was getting closer to him, a gap between her and the door was getting bigger. It was Slevina's chance. He darted to the doors, then straight into the staircase where he was met by a curious riding lizard.



The reptile regreted its own curiosity. When Slevina heard Freshcannon runing after him, he left the poor animal alone, but couldn't run fast enough.

"Okay, you bastard, I got you! What to do with you now... I'll lock you in giant spider room and tell SQ not to feed them. Or maybe I'll give you to the dungeon mistress, she would appreciate a gift like that..." Seeing Slevina, a master warrior, shake in fear was the greatest pleasure for Freshcannon, but fun always needs to end at some point. "Get out of Dungeonevened if you value your life. You were never a Snake material and never will be! Beating up lizards instead of challenging the biggest, baddest Snake... No dignity at all."

SQman

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - The circus is in town! (not this circus)
« Reply #147 on: October 15, 2018, 02:54:04 pm »

Spoiler: M&M session 3 (click to show/hide)


Not actually that much gameplay this time

-A little bit of clean up happened. Kicked out three most miserable drows - Weri (fisherman, never attacked anyone during his tantrums), Asithi (house cleric, liked hurting people) and Slevina (amaster swordsman, liked hurting animals). Most other unhappy drows are corpse haulers. For some reason Fred the Mitey is the happiest drow in town, despite nothing good ever happening to him.

-I don't see a reason to keep wild abrians around. We have a small flock of fully tame ones.

-The Mahogany Hall was deconstructed and replaced by Cavernhall. Still no guests. We'll have a library soon, with lead bookcases and everything.

-Biretha became our first swordmaster. Imic deserved that more, but who am I to argue with the game.

-NWN2 Storm of Zehir playthrough was bigger than DF playthrough this time, but also not much happened.

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - Grug's war cats
« Reply #148 on: October 19, 2018, 12:53:18 pm »

Pulled a sneaky on ya. A short update coming through.





"Gold coin, huh? First time I've ever held one of those... Doesn't feel much different from copper coins I'm used to, if I gotta be honest." SQ said, looking at a coin in her hand. She should have been paying attention to the trap corridor Darkening Kaos was trying to show her, but she couldn't take her eyes off the detailed engravings on the tiny piece of gold.



"Could you at least pretend you care about my work?" Kaos was mildly offended by the overseer's lack of care. SQ reluctantly stopped rotating the coin, crossed her arms over her chest and looked into the corridor as Kaos expected her to. "Here you go, pouting like an angry toddler... Okay, a line of cage trap was set up for your sake, so if any horrible monster comes up, you can pet it into submission, or however you train those creatures. Then we have a hammer trap to tenderize the meat. I used that fancy mechanism with rats engraved on it, because it seemed the highest quality. Next there;s two traps with sawblades to cut up the creatures into tiny pieces. I really should have asked Ombragon what comes first, filleting or tenderizing, but I'm not resetting the traps now. This trap here is a pitchfork trap. It's not finished yet, and I think I'll put a chainsaw inside to spice things up."

"I want some kind of locking mechanism, like a gate." SQ said out of nowhere.

"Gate? I guess I could do that. The tunnel will have to be a little longer, but that's a job for Fred's miners. Anything else you'd like me to add?" Kaos answered, pleasantly surprised by SQ's input.

"Paint a warning on the wall. Something like 'WATCH OUT FOR TRAPS' in huge red letters. And some fake blood splatter for added effect."

"Sounds reasonable, but how about real blood splatter?"

"I like your idea better, do it."

---

In the barracks a certain drow was causing problems, and this time it wasn't either of Snake gangsters.

"Come on! If nobody wants to spar with me, I'll wander off to look for worthy opponents!" Melici the Silver Samurai shouted, looking at her colleagues leaving for their lunch break.

Asin turned around and looked at the swordswoman with pity. "What are you trying to prove, Melici-diri?" He said.

"I have to prove that despite being different, I'm as good, if not better than everybody else! Now draw your sword and fight me!"



"Melici-diri, you are one of the best soldiers the town has, and everyone agrees with this fact but you. The problem is not what others think, it is your low self-esteem." Asin explained calmly, then turned back and headed to the new dining hall.

Melici looked at the door for a few seconds. Asin's words echoed in her head as she was trying to figure out what to make of them. She dropped her sword, wrapped her headscarf around her face leaving only a slit for eyes, and went to get lunch with the rest of the Samurais, still not convinced if she's proven herself enough.

---

Summer, also known as 'one of four sand seasons' has arrived, and it was the time to get the most dusty bags of seeds from the bottom of food stockpiles. It was time to grow strawberries, desert moons, ooze blobs and underberries. No, that was not in any way a good way to run farms. Lunardog and Fred the Mitey stood outside, looking at the fields and discussing the possibilities.



The first field was set up in a very chaotic way:
Spring - whip wines (booze, flour)
Summer - strawberries (booze, edible raw)
Autumn - starberries (booze, edible raw)
Winter - barley (booze flour)

"I like grain crops because it's easy to preserve seeds for planting, but at the same time we use a lot of bags for flour." Lunardog scratched his chin thinking about possible solutions. "We could get some wheat and oats and make it a full blown grain field, but we already have barley any empty bags..."

"So why not leave it as it is? I mean, it's a food-producing aboveground farm plot, and I see you have plans for the other one." Fred commented. He knew nothing about agriculture, but his job was counting every bag of flour and every keg of wine, so he knew the town wasn't short on food and booze.

"I'd make some simple changes. This year we'll be growing wheat instead of strawberries, and water berries instead of whip vines. Drilledterrors Elven Forest Wine was a berry big hit when I brewed the first few barrels."

The second farm plot had even less thought put into it than the first one:
Spring - alfalfa (edible raw)
Summer - desert moons (silver dye)
Autumn - water berries (booze, edible raw)
Winter - weed moss (booze, edible raw)

"I'd like this one to be for dye-producing plants, but desert moons grow only in autumn and summer. Weed moss can stay, even though moss people don't appreciate the work I put into my Rusty Brew." Lunardog thought about what kind of dye plant could grow in winter and spring. "If only we could get some blade weed or redroot..."

"Alfalfa needs to go anyway, so how about fisher berries until we can find something we can mill into dye?" Fred suggested. He developed a strong aversion to alfalfa because he never knew if he was suppoed to count sprouts or individual leaves of the plant.

"So we do have some fisher berry seeds. Fine, let's leaf alfalfa to rothe, it's one of the worst crops I've ever seen. Now for the underground farms...



The work on the first underground farm had already begun, but it hadn't gone nearly far enough.
Spring - abyss shades (cloth)
Summer - underberries (booze, edible raw)
Autumn - cave sugar beets (booze, sugar)
Winter - silkflowers (cloth)

"This will be a field for all our textile needs. With the caverns sealed off and about half of our rothe slaughtered, we're gonna need some plant fiber growing all the year straight or we might end up with a long string of problems."

Fred looked at Lunardog, wondering if the farmer actually knew the current state of the stocks. "Are you aware that all abyss shade spores are currently planted in this field?"

"Isn't that a setback, huh? There should be no problem growing more, since I've seen some wild abyss shades in the menagerie. Rothe manure apparently works wonder for them."



The last farm plot was an epitome of what was wrong with Dungeonevened's food industry - the farmers would plant anything they found interesting there, without worrying if those plants were useful or not.

Spring - spear mints (tea, edible raw)
Summer - ooze blobs (ooze paste)
Autumn - marrow polyps (booze, edible raw)
Winter - plump helmets (booze, edible raw)

"Marrow polyps freak me out, and ooze paste is disgusting, so let's start planting underberries and sugar beets right here. Seems like we have it all planned. Fred, have you made a note for Ombragon?." Lunardog asked.

"What note for Ombragon?"

---

Sisha Evelapip, a neanderthal knight has never been so nervous in his entire life. The last group sent to eradicate the drow menace from these lands disappeared without a trace, presumably slaughtered, maybe even eaten by the vile deep elves. His squad was much larger than the last, but was it really enough to take down a fortress of the enemy most devious? Time for wondering had passed long time ago - the wooden walls of Dungeonevened were clearly visible.



The neanderthals were not fighting this battle alone. Another enemy, subjugated and forced into servitude, was marching with them - frog demons clad in full armor, armed with the finest neanderthal weaponry. The demons fighting for their own cause were hindered by the lack of proper equipment, but those that were approaching had no such problem.



Curiously, something different followed the neanderthal army. Two seemingly normal cats were walking among knights and demons with raised hair, ready for battle. The way they moved, and the way they looked around could suggest they were much more intelligent than regular cats, but the very fact that they wanted to fight despite being cats said otherwise.



The army was hesitant to approach. They stationed near the southern edge of the town and sent cats to serve as scouts.
Darkening Kaos was slowly stumbling through the unfinished moat, dizzied by the sun, completely unaware of the feline running in her direction. The western gate was close, but the cat was much faster than the woman.




"Ow! You son of a... OW! Stop biting, you fleabag! Hey, you ripped my new trousers! There goes my piwafwi..." Kaos seemed more annoyed than scared by the assault, and for a good reason - bites and cratches of the cats weren't supernatural in any way, and their eldritch meowing was nothing compared to torments of cave adaptation.



The first cat fell to a mighty kick of a diamondium boot. Perhaps it wasn't the most dignified end, but it was to be expected.




The second cat, after having its leg cut off by ZM5, was lifted into the air by Freshcannon's axe. Before it could land, it was hit several times. It finally slammed into the ground, but it didn't resemble a cat anymore.



The part of the army composed solely of neanderthals moved out upon hearing the infernal noise of slaughtered sentient cats. They headed to the western gate, barely avoiding falling into a cage trap.




Finally a shaggy, gaullinium-clad head peeked out of the moat. It was quickly met with a diamondium morningstar of one of Imic's Blackguards. The knight's skull remained in one piece, but the same couldn't be said about his spine.



Another axeman noticed what looked like an easy target. Standing in the back and waiting for an opening was Biretha, the Helmet Snake. Having somehow broken through the wall of drows, the neanderthal swung his axe at the swordsman. He didn't expect such a sorry-looking individual to effortlessly, yet needlessly dramatically, dodge his attack. A wide swing passed over Melici's head, alerting her about her colleague's trouble. She was the only one who could hurt Biretha, so the neanderthal had to be stopped. A powerful blow shattered the knight's arm, causing the glowing fairy axe to fall to the ground.

"You owe me one." Melici said, smirking nonchalantly.
"I was never in any danger, you dumbass!" Biretha felt unusually bad after this outburst, so he added: "Are you doing something after this is over?"
"She's cleaning up the barracks with you, now get back to action!" Freshcannon interrupted.



Melici of the Blackguards was an enigma of a person. Nobody really cared who she was before, but those who saw her fight with a neanderthal axewoman could never see her the same way again.
Instead of ending the barely conscious neanderthal's life, she raised her head and kissed her. If that alone wasn't disturbing enough, the next thing she did was to rip the axewoman's tongue off with her teeth.



ZM5 felt particularly uneasy seeing that for personal reasons, so he took it upon himself to save the neanderthal from Melici. He aimed for slitting her throat, but his sharp dagger slipped and cut too deep. Much too deep.



Helmet Snakes and Blackguards fell back to regroup and were joined by Steel Samurais. A pack of frog demons was making its way through the moat, not discouraged by the sight of neanderthal chunks scattered all around.



Melici was angry about losing her plaything, and her anger could only be quenched with violence. Breaking someone's arms would be perfect, but whose arms could she break? A frog demon spearman came charging at her. The demon had huge arms...
Imic joined in, felling the beast to the ground.



While the others were finishing off the first frogman shock brigade, Tharumi Seducedaub, unnoticed by anyone, ran out to meet the next wave of attackers.




The bold yet careless action would have ended badly if it was made by someone else. Tharumi was focused on one thing - getting a proof of her bravery. An ear of the squad leader was enough for her, so she ran back to brag to other Snakes. The title of a mace lady was finally hers.



Not for long.

(I ordered Snakes, Samurais and Blackguards to station in the moat, but they gathered on a single tile in the fort. They could have saved Tharumi no problem.)



The second shock unit was defeated. The remaining enemies ran away. In the end twenty seven foes were slaughtered, but one elite drow soldier died to achieve this victory. Biretha Shadydead of the Blackguards had his hand broken too, but this was not a permanent injury.

"Damn it! For fuck's sake! What was this woman thinking!" Freshcannon couldn't hold back her frustration, after all one of her best soldiers was killed. "It took what, three years to make her that good? She had to get cocky and just run off!"

"It's not your fault, mistress Freshcannon..." Imic attempted to console her.

"I know it's not my fault, you thick-headed moron!"



So:

-I forgot to build a proper locking mechanism for the new cavern entrance, but I realized in time. A nickel bridge soon, then we can get trapping.

-Farm makeover. We have a few full-time hunters and an out of control herd of rothe, we don't need alfalfa. We do need some more dye plants, but only desert moons grow around Dungeonevened.

-Neanderthals brought friends. Frogmen on their own weren't that scary, but that's because they had only copper equipment and no gauntlets or boots. Those ones had full armor made of assorted metals.

-A macelord was killed literally a second after becoming a macelord. Damn shame.

-First real battle for Imic's Blackguards. They did well.

-War cats are useless.

-We need proper fortifications for Nunore's River Watch. I wanted to pelt the stationing frogman squad with bolts, but I'm not taking any unnecessary risks.

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Re: LCM - Dungeonevened - Grug's war cats
« Reply #149 on: October 19, 2018, 01:10:54 pm »

Grug have idea. Grug bring furry animal Grug see on funny cave engravings! That assert dominance over cave elf tribe!
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