Yeeea so there was some success going on here in my turn, not only of the adventuring sort.
The third adventures of Pik and Desli began in the early winter of 872 from that little cabin in the woods in the north. A handful of wanderers had settled there over the years. One Atul shrinetrusts had actually passed of old age while staying there. The pair had been hospitable, but it had to end when the waking nightmares came. For several months both Pik and Desli suffered terrible waking dreams, as if pulled from this world into another, where they faced the same battles over and over again against never-ending hordes of blighted thralls; those flesh-eating semi-undead afflicted by a ghoulish curse, which had began a century ago. Purportedly, from one Tacnu Sealwhiskey, the disease had never been cured or stamped out, and occasional outbreaks still wracked the human lands. There was no answer in their small library of tomes for the cause of such visions, but there was one good place to seek them; the Museum of Boltspumpkin, where a greater collection and many wizened adventurers stood vigil. The pair said their goodbyes to their small gathering and began the trek southwards.
There was a brief stop at Relicward, where they encountered a single lone dwarf afflicted by the blight wandering the halls. He was quickly dispatched without incident. The only one inhabitant of the site as it turned out. It wasn't a lengthy visit, and they moved on to the south, as there was nothing new to be found here.
It was near the fort of Shipwheeled that they encountered their first great obstacle; Nothing. An invisible force assailed Pik suddenly, quickly removing the use of his arms. Unable to perceive his assailant he stood no chance, but Desli's keen sense of hearing gave her the edge to slowly begin fighting back. Pik was forced to watch almost helplessly, able only to occasionally propel it away when Desli called him to do so, alternating with her own spell of propulsion. Desli was at a loss to land effective blows on the assailant, however, as even though she could hear roughly when it moved from the occasional clank of its metal, steel, armor and the rush of air as its weapon - apparently some sort of hammer that largely bounced off her own armor and shield - she could not tell its exact position, Most swings of her axe - Foldeddaggers the Crack of Noiselessness, an ancient steel battle axe of dwarven make - either missed entirely or bounced off the thing's armor. Rarely, when it did apparently bite into flesh, no blood spilled from the wound. Nor did the thing apparently tire or breathe any more than Desli herself - certainly some form of undead. They fought in circles like this for several hours, neither able to make much headway on the other, Pik relegated to the role of attempting to interrupt the fight when Desli should tumble, or for instance when she was disarmed, and her leg shattered, forcing her to fight hobbling on one leg or prone.
If the undead could feel anxiety, that would be what Pik would describe feeling during this timeframe. Eventually the fight took a turn for the better when the combatants stepped beside a pond. Here, Pik propelled their enemy into the murky waist deep water, where when it emerged, its form was outlined by the water pressed away from its body; perhaps that of a dwarf. Now finally they could see roughly where their opponent stood, what stance it took and what leverage that might offer it. Trapped by the steep, muddy slope of the pond, the dwarf would have to struggle for several minutes to escape, and could easily be forced back in, allowing the pair to escape. However, the opportunity to flee now was weighted against to risk of the thing pursuing them indefinitely. A risk they agreed was unwise to take. Here, Desli jumped into the pond in front of the dwarf, swimming forward and balancing on her one uninjured leg, while Pik propelled it away against the opposite muddy bank. Outlined in thrashing mud and water the dwarf was a far easier target for Desli's axe, but the fight dragged on still for nearly another hour. She managed to disarm it, hurling its hammer across the pond, but this only caused it to change tactics to bashing her with its shield, knocking her teeth from her jaw, and setting upon her with its fists. Pik propelled it away once more as he too entered the pond, to smack the thing with his arms to little effect, and then trying to wrap his arms around it to hold it still. Desli soon struck a blow to the dwarf's jaw, sending teeth flying across the pond, but it stood defiant as they, but eventually their combined efforts wore it down, armor came undone and slipped off into the water, and a mighty blow was struck to the dwarf's breast, splitting it nearly in two with a sickening crack. Finally, the spell that hid it from their sight came undone, and a dwarven woman lay dead, bisected and battered before them. A necklace dangled from her neck bearing the name Tosid Waneplanks.
It took several minutes to drag themselves out of the pond. Desli took the dwarf's steel chain leggings to replace her now badly mangled greaves, the left plate crushing her shin. After several hours Desli could walk again, and Pik had regained partial use of his hands, so they carried on south, towards their goal; the Museum.
The northernmost outskirts of civilization were largely unchanged in their one-hundred and two year absence. The first settlement, being the town of Incenseorder, was still ruled by the charcoal brute Yane Crowdsquashes, Time had not been so kind to the pair's reputation here, with this lord, however.
That was a hairy fight, and I have no idea who this Tosid character could possibly be, or where she gained such amazing skill and a suit of steel armor, legends mode reveals only that she had been killed twice before in Shipwheeled. I encountered her wandering in the forest, wondering what that asterisk could be, and found out too late there was nowhere to run from the Nothing. If Pik or Desli had been alone, it would have been impossible as I could not attack her and had to rely on the AI. Pik being immediately disarmed made Desli the logical choice, but her getting disarmed too, twice no less, made it even more anxiety-inducing.
Oh, also also also, I kept the modified objects folder, just renamed it, and replaced it with a vanilla objects folder and added the changes to dwarves and kobolds.
Also also, the save on my computer came out to 4.11 gb, up from 2.91 after unpacking the turn 78 save. WTF? I might have to delete the save just because my laptop only has like 10 gigs of space left and i cant run my external HDD without a reliable power source
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Topic: Museum III, adventure succession game (DF 0.47.05) (Read 409436 times)