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Author Topic: Thob Goes to the Surface  (Read 57466 times)

King Zultan

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #150 on: July 20, 2021, 05:18:08 am »

What a strange fortress, and what's with every site having at least one goblin inside of it?
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The Lawyer opens a briefcase. It's full of lemons, the justice fruit only lawyers may touch.
Make sure not to step on any errant blood stains before we find our LIFE EXTINGUSHER.
but anyway, if you'll excuse me, I need to commit sebbaku.
Quote from: Leodanny
Can I have the sword when you’re done?

Maloy

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #151 on: July 20, 2021, 07:08:20 am »

Always look forward to these updates!

Loam

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #152 on: July 20, 2021, 10:10:34 am »

and what's with every site having at least one goblin inside of it?
Probably because anyone you meet has a 95% chance to be a goblin...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ugh...first a goblin belly-dancer and now a corsets trader guild?
Maybe she's part of an ad campaign?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Thob Goes to the Surface (Adventure Mode story, in progress)

Loam

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #153 on: July 25, 2021, 06:16:46 pm »

South of Drummedbrass the party passed another abandoned monastery. The abbey chapel was finely engraved, and on the walls Thob picked out the image of a dancing god and his worshipers – this must be the “Gicast” that the goblin priestess had mentioned. Further engravings told him the name of the sect that had worshiped here.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The “Mellow Cult,” of the god of music festivals? Only a shiftless, daydreaming surface-dweller would come up with that, thought Thob. Dwarves worshiped sensible things, like wealth, and industry, and battle.
   Well, most dwarves anyway – Thob recalled with a shudder the devotion to Oggon in his homeland. A dance god was probably better than a lust goddess, all things considered.

A large town lay on the plains to the east, connected to Drummedbrass by a long packed-dirt road. The sun was already setting as the party approached, and rather than enter a strange city at night they decided to find somewhere else to stay and wait for morning. It so happened that a small castle stood on a hill just outside the town:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
At the very least, it’d be a shelter from the dingoes. Thob pushed open the wooden gates and entered the courtyard, which seemed deserted. He went to the keep and peered inside – and was surprised to find it stuffed, top to bottom, with books!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Might this castle have been a library, once? There still seemed to be no one around, so the party entered the keep. Thob began to study the books one by one; they were strewn over the furniture and floors in no particular order. They were mostly guides, biographies, and histories, of middling quality: one history devoted all 262 pages to a dragon eating a bird.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As he read, he noticed that most of the books – indeed, very nearly every one – had been written by the same hand, and bore the same name: Ugrad Nutsyawning. What was more, they were almost all about Ugrad Nutsyawning as well.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And most were just about Ugrad writing other books – or, even stranger, about Ugrad storing other books…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob took note of the dates in these biographies: it seemed this Ugrad had lived for several centuries at least, far longer than a usual human lifespan. Thob’s suspicions were confirmed upon reading one particular book:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He was still perusing the clutter of books when two people entered the room. One was a goblin, wearing unadorned garments of elvish fashion; the other a human, a short and very skinny lady with long white hair in two braids. She did not look entirely sane.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Who’s there?” said the goblin. “What are you doing here?”
   “We’re just looking around,” said Thob. “Didn’t know anyone was here. We thought we’d stop here for the night.”
   The goblin gave them a weighing look. “You look awfully well-armed for mere travelers,” he said.
   “Have to be,” answered Thob. “You know… dingoes, and such.”
   “Hmm… yes, well… I suppose you don’t mean any harm, or you’d have done it by now. I am Stasost Ancientwitch.”
   “And I’m Thob. What’s with all the suspicion? Are you the lord of this place?”
   “Good Gicast, no. I’m just a guardian, of sorts. There hasn’t been a lord here in ages – Castle Waneclutches is now used for a very different purpose.”
   “A library?”
   “A prison!” rattled the old human lady nearby, quite suddenly and loudly. “They keep me locked up here, night and day, with nothing to eat or drink! Please, help an old woman, would you?”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Don’t listen to her!” warned Stasost. “Don’t be fooled by her innocent victim bit!”
   “So she is your prisoner,” said Thob. “Why? What’s she done?”
   “You really aren’t from around here, then,” said the goblin. He pointed to the woman. “That’s Ugrad Nutsyawning, the necromancer.”
   “Immortal author and genius of the highest order!” shouted Ugrad. “The whole world would know my name – if those Empire goons hadn’t stuffed me in here…”
   She continued ranting, but Stasost spoke over her calmly. “You see why we can’t let her out. And why I have to be wary of visitors. We’ve enough trouble as it is, without another crazed witch in the world.”
   “…one day, though,” Ugrad continued, “my work will get out, and my words will be read! You cannot shut out the truth, Stasost! Do you hear me? YOU CANNOT SHUT OUT THE TRUTH!!” She clutched at Stasost’s robes as she shouted in his ear, but the goblin betrayed no annoyance – he looked like he’d been through this before.
   “How long have you been here,” asked Strodno, “with… her?”
   “I think it’s been… five centuries, now?” said Stasost.
   “Must be hard… I was trapped in a tower for a few, myself – mostly alone, though. I guess it’s better having someone to talk to.”
   Stasost glanced at Ugrad, who had released his garments and sat now in a corner, muttering. “Somehow I don’t think so,” he said.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “I guess that explains the books,” said Thob. “You know – why she writes about herself so much.”
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “At least it keeps her busy, and mostly quiet.”
   “I guess, then,” said Strodno, “that these lands have had the same trouble with undead as the rest of the world?”
   “I don’t know about the rest,” said Stasost, “but yes, we’ve had our share of undead invasions. Mostly in the past, though. The remaining necromancers have hunkered down in their towers, and haven’t tried anything big for a while. Let’s hope it stays that way.”
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Thob Goes to the Surface (Adventure Mode story, in progress)

PlumpHelmetMan

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #154 on: July 25, 2021, 07:09:10 pm »

I love Ugrad's antics. She reminds me a lot of the archetypal mad scientist who's always egotistically ranting about how he'll change the world and show all those narrow-minded fools who called him mad (MAD I TELL YOU! MAD!! MAAAD!!) Also I never tire of seeing your art. Wish my DF art looked half as good. :)
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It's actually pretty terrifying to think about having all of your fat melt off into grease because you started sweating too much.

King Zultan

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #155 on: July 26, 2021, 04:07:07 am »

I also like the art you made for this.
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The Lawyer opens a briefcase. It's full of lemons, the justice fruit only lawyers may touch.
Make sure not to step on any errant blood stains before we find our LIFE EXTINGUSHER.
but anyway, if you'll excuse me, I need to commit sebbaku.
Quote from: Leodanny
Can I have the sword when you’re done?

Loam

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #156 on: August 02, 2021, 05:04:27 pm »

Also I never tire of seeing your art. Wish my DF art looked half as good.
Well, there's only one way to get better ;)



The party left Castle Waneclutches the next morning, to explore the human city to the west. Just north of the castle they stumbled on a small campsite in the fields:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A few leather bags and scattered items littered the ground; a kobold stood nearby, and another lay in the grass – what was left of one, anyway:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob spied a third kobold on the ridge, looking tired and sweating heavily. Down below another kobold nursed its wounds, and another corpse lay still beside it:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
What had gone on here? Had something attacked the little creatures – or had there been some disagreement between the kobolds themselves? Without really expecting to find out anything, Thob tried to ask the kobolds what had happened. Strodno had a different idea:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The kobolds, however, proved too fast for her and ran away into the fields. Thob decided to leave the place before there was any more violence.

The town, which the road signs named “Sprungdreamed,” looked populous and decently maintained. The party entered along a wide paved road running among small houses in the town’s outskirts, where goblins and humans lived side-by-side.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Of course, side-by-side didn’t mean they always got along. One still had to consider the temperamental nature of goblin-kind:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There were many shrines to different deities and religions lining the town’s streets:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Likewise, several large temples rose amid the houses, built and decorated in different styles. The largest Thob saw was the Heavenly Sanctuary, a vast open-plan temple to a rain goddess, Julosm the Submerged:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There was, naturally, a temple to Gicast: the ornately-carved Chapel of Music, built by the Creed of Candy:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But the temple Thob found most interesting was the Persuasive Cathedral, a grandiose name for what amounted to a sandy hole surrounded by a few columns. But at the bottom of that hole was something Thob thought he’d never see on the surface: magma!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
How the humans had gotten it up here he couldn’t guess, unless the temple itself had been built over a magma pipe. Either way, Thob was a little nervous about what sort of “persuasion” required a magma pit…

The town market was packed with traders, mostly goblin but some human, selling meat and small crafts of bone or gem, along with weapons made predominantly of silver.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The goblins had an interesting marketing style. As with most elements of goblin culture, trade among their kind involved a particularly direct means of resolving disputes:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   The party came to the great keep in the center of town. Inside was a cramped bustle of goblins, humans, a few elves, and even some experiments:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob had noticed that, despite the great number of shrines and temples in Sprungdreamed, there seemed to be very few priests to speak of. Now he knew why: all the priests, for some reason, were at court, rubbing elbows with dignitaries, representatives, and castle functionaries. There were many different kinds of priests, too, each with its own peculiar title…
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In the center of all the hubbub was one important-looking elf. Thob expected he was the lord of the castle; he was surprised, then, when the elf introduced himself as law-giver of the whole human kingdom!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
(Thob was later shown a gold coin of the kingdom, the Blockaded Empires, which bore the elf’s name, Mokun Sprungstrike. The coin also depicted, to his interest, an exchange of peace between the Empires and the Lost Sins – evidently the Great Goblin Realm of the North had influence even this far south!)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Law-Giver Mokun discussed a few of the empire’s troubles, chiefly the continuing wars against the necromancers. Other than that he had little to say, and seemed to Thob to be a generally unpleasant sort of person:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There were apparently no taverns at all in Sprungdreamed, ruined or otherwise, which was disappointing for a people that worshiped a god of revelry. As night drew on the party found a small house on the outskirts where they were welcome for the night:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Naturally, where goblins were involved even being “welcome” didn’t mean you’d have a quiet night. Somehow Strodno managed to start a little fistfight with the locals. Fortunately everyone came out with only minor bruises.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Still, Thob wished she wouldn’t brawl with their hosts – even if goblins didn’t mind, the party would soon be among dwarves who took a dimmer view of that sort of thing.
   At least, Thob hoped they’d be among dwarves. Experience had taught him to temper his expectations, even as sobriety urged on his hopes. One way or another, they’d find out tomorrow.
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Thob Goes to the Surface (Adventure Mode story, in progress)

mightymushroom

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #157 on: August 02, 2021, 06:13:12 pm »

How the humans had gotten it up here he couldn’t guess, unless the temple itself had been built over a magma pipe. Either way, Thob was a little nervous about what sort of “persuasion” required a magma pit…
I don't know about Thob's clan, but my dwarves find magma to be near-universally persuasive for resolving disagreements!
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King Zultan

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #158 on: August 03, 2021, 04:51:57 am »

I guess the churches in this town all must advocate violence because there sure seemed to be a lot of it going on.
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The Lawyer opens a briefcase. It's full of lemons, the justice fruit only lawyers may touch.
Make sure not to step on any errant blood stains before we find our LIFE EXTINGUSHER.
but anyway, if you'll excuse me, I need to commit sebbaku.
Quote from: Leodanny
Can I have the sword when you’re done?

PlumpHelmetMan

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #159 on: August 03, 2021, 04:55:03 am »

That would also explain why these human religions seem to appeal to goblins so much.
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It's actually pretty terrifying to think about having all of your fat melt off into grease because you started sweating too much.

Loam

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #160 on: September 02, 2021, 07:44:48 pm »

oof what a month

Also have run into a not-insignificant issue that rather dampened my drive to work on Thob, which you will read about presently. Nothing that can't be overcome, but it may require some... ingenuity.



In the morning the party left Sprungdreamed and headed west, toward the mountains and the dwarven fortresses therein. Thob’s spirits were high as they progressed over the ancient stone-paved road, drawing nearer to the promise of sublime intoxication with every step. By late morning the shape of the fortress of Planesgirder was visible in the near distance.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But, just as Thob came within a hundred yards of the fortress walls, a very strange thing happened: he suddenly found himself standing, not right before the walls, but well back along the road they had just travelled – several hours’ journey, in fact. Indeed, to judge by the sun’s height, it was several hours ago – still early dawn rather than mid-morning. Thob blinked furiously.
   “Well that was a very strange thing,” he said. “Did we just… travel back in time?”
   “Or was it… just a dream?” said Cañar.
   With a forbidding feeling of déjà vu they started back, again, along the road they had already walked, if they had already walked it. Once again the proud dwarven citadel reared up before the mountain. Once again the companions approached. And once again, upon getting within a stone’s throw from the walls they found themselves a few hours back, along the road and in time.
   Strodno raised a horrified hand to her head. “I think I know what’s going on!” she said.
   “What is it?” asked Thob.
   “An enchantment,” the goblin said. “I’ve heard of such like this – the ancients called them ‘Memory Barriers,’ though I don’t know why. They’re a powerful force, able to manipulate time itself – to make it stand still, or even to reverse the course of events!”
   “So this barrier is keeping us from getting to Planesgirder?” asked Alisa.
   “When we get too close,” said Cañar, “it boots us back through time.”
   “Is their anything we can do about it?” asked Thob.
   “I know of nothing in this world that can remove such a barrier,” said Strodno. “Legends tell of something called the ‘Memory Stick’ that might weaken its power, but such magics meddle with the very fabric of our universe, well beyond the power of any created being to wield.”
   Thob sighed. Just when they were so close… now they must either find another, unensorceled fortress, or wait for some benevolent deity to clear their way. Thob knew which course he preferred. “Well, no time to waste,” he said. “We’ll just have to look elsewhere.”



Sorry for a short update after so long, but I wanted to let y'all know where we're at right now. I'll post another short update in a couple days or so. I'm still waiting to see if I can fix this.
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Thob Goes to the Surface (Adventure Mode story, in progress)

PlumpHelmetMan

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #161 on: September 02, 2021, 09:07:09 pm »

I love it when DF bugs lend themselves to emergent stories, probably one of my favourite parts of the game. Also probably the closest thing to a procedural magic system we'll get in DF for a few years yet.

Even so, I hope Thob and friends manage to find a way out of this one.
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It's actually pretty terrifying to think about having all of your fat melt off into grease because you started sweating too much.

King Zultan

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #162 on: September 03, 2021, 04:09:03 am »

Sucks that you can't get into that fort, and it'll probably turn out to be the only one that has booze.
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The Lawyer opens a briefcase. It's full of lemons, the justice fruit only lawyers may touch.
Make sure not to step on any errant blood stains before we find our LIFE EXTINGUSHER.
but anyway, if you'll excuse me, I need to commit sebbaku.
Quote from: Leodanny
Can I have the sword when you’re done?

Loam

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #163 on: September 05, 2021, 05:21:50 pm »

Yeah really. But even if that's the case, I have a plan...



Just to the north of Planesgirder a cluster of small earthen hillocks sat nestled at the mountains’ feet. It was unlikely there was any booze about, but the booze wasn’t all – Thob had wanted to see dwarves, too, for he had been too long away from his own folk.

The mounds were topped with charming roof gardens growing all sorts of vegetables. As they wandered between (and sometimes atop) the hillocks, the party heard the sounds of dwarven voices conversing and arguing:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Even here, it seemed, the worship of Gicast had spread: someone had spent an awful lot of gold on a statue in the god’s honor.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thob entered the nearest mound by the stone door set in its wall. Inside he found six dwarves in a room full of mushroom-wood furnishings, and floored with a thick carpet of… quarry bushes?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Certainly an efficient use of space, to grow one’s crops in the same room with one’s living arrangements.
   The dwarves here looked different from those of Thob’s homeland – they all had gold-yellow hair and deep green eyes, hooked noses and low cheekbones. Thob hailed them, asking about the land and its people. This was a quiet sort of place, he gathered. The most interesting news was about some locally-important goblin – a priest of some sort – looking for some lost treasures.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Ever the diplomat, Alisa nearly provoked a fight by casually insulting the dwarves’ cherished values:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Cooperation breeds weakness, eh?” Cañar jibed. “That explains a lot about you, Alisa…”

When they went back outside the travelers heard a sudden commotion from the north:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Two goblins darted out from behind a nearby mound and ran past the party. They were followed by several more – all goblins, and all wearing the garb of priests from what Thob could tell. Some looked a bit beaten up. They were all running from a large mound near the middle of the village, to which Thob and his friends now went.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Inside were a several goblins, most of them engaged in fistfights, among a dozen dwarves who seemed neither to be involved in the belligerent disputes or even to pay them much heed:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Hello, strangers,” a farm-dwarf greeted them, as two of the goblin priests socked each other nearby. “Nice to see new faces in town.”
   “Is it, uh, always like this?” asked Thob.
   “Hm? Oh, them? Nothing to worry about – they’ll sort it out between themselves.” The conversation proceeded with scarcely a cautious glance at the struggling goblins, one of whom now was now engaged in throttling his supine opponent.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
When the goblin lay dead a wiry but muscular dwarf came up to Thob and introduced himself: Mebzuth Deeparmor, mayor of Humidglazed. Even this dwarf seemed unconcerned by the recent battle. “Um, you know,” said Thob, indicating the deceased, “that one just, like, killed that other guy…”
   “Yeah – that was bound to happen one of these days. Damsto never knew when to shut up.” Then, without a second thought for the dead goblin, the mayor turned to his fellows and began cracking jokes.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Evidently the goblins, though not conquerors, were still so prevalent hereabouts that the dwarves had grown used to their violent tendencies. “They mostly keep it among themselves,” said Mayor Mebzuth. “If they want to kill each other off, more power to ‘em.”

Thob exited the civic mound and entered another large hillock nearby. Only one goblin in here, among a dozen dwarves of all shapes and sizes. One lay very still on the floor, though whether passed out or passed on Thob couldn’t tell.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
All of them, bar the goblin, had the glazed look of dwarves many days sober. This was clearly the local tavern, despite the lack of any obvious alcohol in the room – at least the denizens regarded themselves, not without pride, as “drunks.” Their conversation was about as lucid as one might expect:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The goblin, Snodub, was the tavern keeper (and a “servant of dance” to boot). She had as much right to that title as anyone could, Thob guessed – she’d been running this place for nigh two centuries!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
   “Being so close to Planesgirder,” she said, “we usually get our booze from there – it’s better stuff, made of rare fruits from the humans and elves. Funny, though… we haven’t had a shipment in a while. Something must be wrong up at the fort.”

After a few hours it was time to leave. Thob had enjoyed this stay, however brief, among his fellow dwarves. And they had been hospitable also – seeing his travel-worn and battle-tattered garb they had generously offered some fine, durable clothes for the journey. Thob chose a few pieces that would, he thought, be fitting for a monster-slaying undead-hunter like himself:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The folks also pointed the party south, where more dwarven forts were to be found. Hopefully this time  there’d be no magic walls in the way…
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Thob Goes to the Surface (Adventure Mode story, in progress)

TheFlame52

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Re: Thob Goes to the Surface: Part V
« Reply #164 on: September 05, 2021, 06:54:01 pm »

Nice clothes :D
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