Now he knew. In the whisperings he had heard the future of the Doomhollow; not only one future but
all the possible futures the fortress could have. Most of them seemed to involve blood, horror and death. Some hinted at oblivion and abandonment. All of them told the end of the fortress, in one way or another.
Doomhollow was doomed.
But there was also a choice. The fort didn't have to end as a dark bloody rathole with insane, starving survivors killing each other in its corridors. It could also go out with a flash of purpose and glory. All it needed was some direction. An unending string of brave, special dwarves could steer the fortress to a better direction, and - perhaps - postpone the inevitable demise. The overseers.
And now he not only knew, but also understood. He had a mission. A responsibility.
How could a nineteen year old miner manage such a burden? If he was going to survive through his overseer year, he needed to know the fort first. With 134-year old mason
Urdim Tongsjudge, one of the first citizens in the fortress, he set out for a tour of Doomhollow.
Despite being a relatively new settlement, Doomhollow was actually quite populous place; with its 123 inhabitants it was classified as a "city" by the Mountainhome Census Bureau. It was also a wealthy and well-supplied fortress with its food stores filled for several years' needs. Even booze supply would be enough for couple of seasons.
Urdim led Staalo to surface, across the granite block drawbridge and past the tethered guard dogs. Mighty saguaros bent under their snow loads in the freezing weather.
"Welp, this's the so-called new entrance. Old gate got walled up, but there's still some of them old fort farms an' workshops left back there. Always have to walk the whole damn distance if someone wants some fresh eggs on their biscuits."
"I-I see!" Staalo shuddered in the gale. "And what's that stumpy little tower over there?"
"That be the fancy guard tower. Them militia boys train inside an' sometimes they pop out an' see if any of them gobbos are coming. Aint much to look, that one."
"An' this here is our trading depot where them damned knife ears still be waiting for Thukkan knows what. Mind that yak poop there, we'll be going inside."
"What... oh! Right." Staalo tried to wipe his shoe against a dwarbridge mechanism. "So, this level looks a bit... unfinished?"
"Yup, don't know about that. For some reason all of them bedrooms there got dug out but then nothing was done with them. Got a nice hospital an' library here, though."
"An if we go downstairs - never mind them ramps back there, nobody uses them, we use this single staircase here - here we see some workshops and stockpiles. Bit of a schist job to fetch just about anything from there, if you don't mind me saying."
Staalo looked along the endless-seeming corridor. "Why is everything built so far away from everything else?"
"Dunno about that, them's the orders an' we just build them. But if you'll squint a bit you can just see the bedrooms back there."
"Sorry lad, got to stop a bit an' have a breather, aint got the legs I got when I was younger. So here we got them bedrooms an' the dining hall. Also got some temples over there, if yer feeling inclined to commune with them higher powers an' all."
"Interesting. But why there are so many bedrooms without doors?"
Urdim's expression went completely blank. "Dunno. Them's the orders. Uh, but anyways, if we go all the way back there, we gets to the main staircase where we can go down to the mines."
"Here we gots the whole mining operatinon...on going. If them miners find any ore they chuck it down this ore chute here - we'll go down this way -"
"An' this was the place where Imic had that little accident of his. You heard about that?"
"Yes... that's, uh, that's quite a
lot of blood."
"Yup, wasn't much left of him to put into coffin. Had to scrape him off the boulder with a shovel to get the most of him."
"Ye can't see it, but there's the cavern entrance. Got it all locked up and trapped. Boulder traps." Urdim sniffed contemptuously.
"An finally here's them forges. Watch yer step, got a couple of holes here an there might be something fairly unpleasant there in the magma."
"I... I see. Well, thank you, Urdim, this has been most informative."
"Anytime, lad. Well, I'll be going then, it's a bit of a climb from down here."
So this was the fort he should be directing. He could see the conflicting projects former overseers had undertaken and then abandoned. It was up to him to make some sense out of it and to see that at least on his watch none of the visions of horror and destruction would become reality. For failure and death were never far away...
...in Doomhollow.
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Topic: The Doom of Doomhollow - Year 10 - [Finished] (Read 51550 times)