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[Maloy]

Excerpt from "The Histories and Legends of Dwarfkind"

While the origins and the glories of humanity might be obvious for all to see we have often been misguided by rumor and conjecture on the origins of our shorter friends in the mountains.

At the beginning of history in a time of myth out of the mountains many dwarves stepped, supposedly created by their gods, and out of the mountain stepped the first king: Rakust Squashtakes. A dwarf of legend it was said his beard was made from gabbro stone, but this is likely exaggeration on the part of the dwarves

He oversaw a brief era of rapid expansion across the mountain range only ended by the invasion of Aditha Deathmoist in year 12. Yes, dear reader, that Aditha Deathmost. King Rakust and an army of dwarves defended the mountainhome from the beast, but it slew the king. The beast in turn was killed by an unnamed dwarf. Some say the unmemorialized ghost of the king while others point to a travelling miner who was merely passing by while looking for booze for his hometown. Either way following this we saw the formation of a cult that still worships Aditha as some sort of god of murder

The adherents aren't welcome in any towns as you well know.

Following Rakust's death Rimtar Flankedgems took over as queen. She ruled for 21 years, and oversaw the fall of the mountainhome. They were invaded by goblins, led by a host of demons released by dwarven cousins from lands far from here, they conquered the city, and the queen herself was slaughtered by one such demon. Following this the goblins took her body and several other officials and mutilated and used them to make a sculpture to mock all dwarven kind. This led to the war that still rages on today, and gave us the allies that have helped us so much.


Now enters the queen's daughter, and a well known legend, Ushrir Fordcrypt the Joyous Doom. Before the capitol fell she lived in the lands below the mountains as a monster slayer. In such a time of open war, when demons had just be unleashed on the world, it is notable for any individual to survive as a warrior in that time. When she became queen the sight of a collapsing dwarven civilization gave her great fear and she became terrified of her own death. She became an ardent worshiper of the dwarven god of death, rebirth, creation and crafts.
Unlike many others the dwarven god actually heard her pleas and blessed her to be his avatar.
Here's where historians begin to differ.

The dwarves insist that Queen Ushrir was blessed with supernatural longevity (for she still lives to this day over 200 years later!) and the powers of her god, while goblins insist that she is merely a necromancer. If she is a necromancer she would be one of the first and also the only one who has never raised a corpse into undeath. Perhaps though she only does this out of reverence for the god of rebirth?

Either way following her acquisition of powers she spent years under cover in goblin settlements, and forged an alliance with elves when they also sent a spy into the same lands, eventually she was captured and tortured by the goblins. She broke herself free and began a campaign of destruction on goblinkind that secured the borders of the dwarves permanently.

Whenever a battle would happen she would turn enemy combatants and prisoners of war into demons. Even if the dwarves were repelled these monsters would rampage across goblin territories, often for years, until they were killed off.

If my human compatriots understand the terror of the night when a werebeast arrives in your village than this is comparable to the plague unleashed on goblinkind.


To this day Ushrir still rules, and although the dwarves have not advanced or retaken their capitol, nor have they lost an inch of territory as advancing enemies find men in their own ranks twisting and contorting to nightmare forms of demons (who the goblins refer to as "mistakes" rather than acknowledging them as being on the same level as their own demon brethren)

First Defender Besmar's Log
A lot of news in a short amount of time!
"King" Zultan just got back from a trip in the caves. Mad lad killed many a monster, and ended his day hunting crundles before heading off to the tavern. He didn't properly kill the crundles though so they're reanimating and chasing the others.


Not really a problem though, as we started a second military squad. I put Tokami in charge of it and I sent his boys off one direction and mine off the other hunting the little things. Crundles being about the size of a six week old puppy they are good training for recruits as green as an elf home. Feb has been making a name for herself and has become a hero to the new guys. Which is good because she's actually trying to mangle the corpses finally since others are actually looking up to her.

On the way back home the rest of the squad saw a crundle and ran off to chase it like a puppy being taken to the butcher's shop and I done got ambushed by a troll! How many times have I almost died here? I don't know. I fought the thing by meself, and I don't have any armor. Any lucky swipe of it's claws could have ended me, but I killed it. And everybody had to run laps around the cavern until they passed out. Fair is fair.

Also new migrants getting our numbers up! With two full squads and enough workers  I now have everyone training around the clock. Their isn't enough weapons and no armor. So if we get hit by a big beastie or an army we have to rely on numbers and skill.

No anvil to melt some of our metal stuff or I would've already melted and had some gear made, but I'm preparing the area outside our gates for when we set our ballistae up


New migrants too. This one couple the woman is only 22, and already has a kid. I think they're sick of the way things are run back home too. Good sign for us! Don't get me wrong gods bless the queen, but she's a stickler for tradition. Would rather send demon hordes on the goblins than spend dwarven blood, but that's the problem! Won't kill our own enemies and so they don't go and die proper! Can't tell her though she just gives you that disturbing smile

We have so many dwarves by the way that most are sleeping on the floor. With our crundle farm up and going and starvation solved I decided their weren't enough stalagmites to make them into bedrooms. So we're digging out a hall in the ceiling that will have homes in it, my office is going to be built on the stalagmite nearest to it

Migrants asked for a Farmer's Guildhall after forming their own club. Thankful Imush handled it otherwise I'd have just sent them all to hunt Giant Olms.  She built them a room in a Stalagmite above our fields and put that stone ring on display that dwarf with the honor issues made.

Now you wanna know what one of those durned bards did? She went and got possessed by the gods or something or other! Never seen anything like it, she went and stole a craftshop and began taking all our stuff! Built a bin from the bones of those crundle zombies we killed. The "Imperial Spirit"
Imush says its a word from the gods that they're endorsing our move to take new lands for dwarf-kind.
Whatever.
we also tore down the eastern walls to the rest of the caves and then built new ones further out claiming more space for ourselves. From here I'm having the miners dig a tunnel to the eastern-most end where the dead bodies don't reanimate. Probably gonna move our butcher shops and trash piles there. Right now works fine. We built the butcher next to where I drill the boys. So anytime a stray crundle scale or elk bird feather reanimates we can step on it real quick. How's that evil magic even work anyway? A scale? I guess it counts as mangling to step on it?

Now for our plans: Turns out Imush's survey team she sent ahead of us were probably scam artists, one of those things you sign up for on posters, and they told us this place had metal both close to the surface and in the depths! Glad they're dead, but beyond that to get metal we are gonna need merchants or raids.

The fort's gonna have 200 residents and although I haven't told Imush yet I'm gonna turn 100 of them into soldiers. With armies of the dead, goblins, demons, beasts, etc. We are gonna need to have blood to spare
Of the 100 workers I'm letting Imush handle it. She already got a couple dwarves making masterwork bone crafts. Including statues of Rakust, which I take to mean they're excited to expand our lands too, and she is starting the Jewelry business here. No metals so we gotta make money somehow.
Although he has no skill in it Tonnot is being assigned our lead Jeweler and once he has some skill he will start teaching a caste of dwarf workers

[Maloy]

Great story so far! Keep up the great work. I’m enjoying it greatly so far

I appreciate it a lot! Obviously I'm writing because I enjoy it, but other people enjoying it too is awesome and makes me wanna put more time into it

I liked the combat stuff, and I like how my dwarf is a bad ass that's clearing out the caverns.

Keeping us safe from the terrors of the deep.

For real got that Lone samurai vibe going lol
I liked the combat stuff, and I like how my dwarf is a bad ass that's clearing out the caverns.

[Maloy]

Writer's note here: all the back stories and out-of-fort information you're reading I am getting from legends. Only the starting 7 had backgrounds and motives I made and I based them off the personalities
So all this other stuff is only me interpreting how events played out or maybe even the motive behind it.

Joyous Doom
Many generations ago...

The night was still upon Auranotched. The small human town, if you could call it that for many more goblins now lived there, closed their doors tightly in the evening. For from the dwarven mountains to the south Yeti's frequently rampaged and from the north a werebeast plague frequently saw monsters coming through looking for prey. It also found itself to be a no-man's land as the goblin badlands to the north waged open war, and the humans themselves frequently persecuted missionaries from the mountains who sought to proselytize the dwarven faith

With this evening only a few were out. Brave men and women who's job it was to hold sentry and warn the town of dangers. As one human sat guard on his post three figures drew near to him from outside the town. Goblin-sized he called out "Halt! Identify yourself!"
The central figure stepped into view and it was a she-dwarf who smiled and said "we are weary travelers would you not offer us drink and fellowship?"
"I said Halt! Identify yourself!"
She continued to smile "Well, no I guess your people haven't been known to treat mine well have they?" and she gestured with her hand as she spoke.
The man drew axe, but then was overcome by pain. He fell forward and then onto his knees as pain overwhelmed him. His skin darkened to midnight black and became scaly. His eyes began to melt away as if they weren't there and his nose shape into a trunk. He grew many times his original size and his gear split off from his body. When the agonizing transformation was done he knelt before the she-dwarf and spoke "Command me, my queen"
"Go, kill and eat" she said and the creature departed in an instant into his hometown. The woman never stopped smiling


Floorsavages
Far to the south back to the modern day in Floorsavages we can see an aerial view of the tundra. The only entrance to the fort was a single hole with a hatch covered in frozen mucus, and the land itself was a dark yellow. The dwarves look more like kobolds as they fly from their cave to scavenge abandoned goods from the surface.
And these dedicated scavengers frequently give into despair as they trek through waist deep mucus, but looks are deceiving and deep under the earth a proper fortress was brewing



First Defender Besmar's Log
Sweet Sienna it can never be simple can it?
We found another cave. Above us.

Imush and I had agreed to dig a caravan route going from the surface to the fort, and made some progress other than Libash drowning in the aquifer(I already made him a slab meself)

The cave is almost entirely under water with small islands inbetween. Miners got excited seeing all the jewels, but I was depressed about the lack of metal.
I was just about to organized Tomaki's squad to permanently patrol those caves, because if they became overrun with the dead it'd be hopeless, but it is too late.
The water is already stuffed with reanimated monsters and there's no safe way to reach them. Even if we could I wouldn't throw these men at such odds.

Immediate problem is rerouting our caravan route, but after that we need to decide what to do. I don't want some undead nightmare that can fly coming up from there and ambushing us.

uh...what else.
Tomaki got married. Apparently it's his third wife even though he's half my age. Like a man with all the bluster of being newly wed he also suggested we go ahead and start raiding goblins so that we can get some gear.
Imagine we just said that! We sound like goblins talking about looting weapons and armor.
Anyway, I'm not opposed, but we need better defenses than our anonymity.
I've set a couple of masons to work making blocks. We are going to build a 20x20x fort on the surface strictly for military use.

Can test an idea I had for a trap. Did you know that I wasn't allowed to build anything at that war camp I inherited? No, that "Would be starting a fort and you aren't approved!" so we had to do everything the old fashioned way.
While the masons work on that we are gonna redo that caravan route and dig out the next spire on our cavern floor.

We only had Imush to mine after Libash drowned(I'll be honest I'm more upset we lost his pickaxe), but we had several new migrants arrive and I put a pick in each of their hands! Noticed a lot of kids too!

The next spire is a jeweler's spire. First floor being the guild, second is the workshop floor and the third will be bedrooms. Tonnot was excited and wanted to fill it with gem windows, but I asked him to wait until we made some more profit


Elves came by again and we bought some animals. A black bear and giant badger. Just bought them for eating I am hoping they'll bring us something we can use for fighting so wanna entice them to bring more animals, you know? Set up traps to catch the unicorns by the way


Another security issue being that we have a lot of goblins visiting. A lot. I don't mean those humanified ones either. These are completely from the goblin civilizations. Are they spies?
I know goblins help the humans and there were a few living back at the mountain home even, but I can't shake my suspicion of something going on. Good news is one of them died! An elk bird reanimated and cut his throat out. He passed on and we threw his corpse into the pile! He also left us a book called the "Book of Peace" Many levels of irony here.



Finally, and even more worrisome. I realized most of these migrants aren't actually from the mountains. Many of them are dwarves from the lowlands or human lands or other places! Back home it was generally understood that nothing survived down there that wasn't goblin, slave or undead. Turns out there's a lot more people alive down here than we thought and they have colorful histories as well.

Far to the north not many years ago...
Darkness was all around. It consumed him and every sense.
If it wasn't the reason he was captured he would have forgotten he was a dwarf.

This dwarf sat in a cell just big enough to fit him and sat in darkness for weeks. The only time the absolute silence was ended was when another prisoner was being dragged out, usually screaming, to be tortured.
Other than that it was only darkness. So much darkness.
You see our bodies and minds were built to hear noise, smell things, see things.
In total silence of his cell his ears strained so desperately to hear something, anything at all, that he could hear his own heartbeat as if it was screaming in his ears. It filled him with dread, and over the weeks of alcohol depravation he found himself spending less time thinking on anything to distract him and more time just...sitting and not doing or thinking anything.

He heard footsteps approach. His ears so sensitive each step was like a slap. He heard the door unlatch and open and the very slight amount of light let in burned his eyes. A set of red-eyes spoke to him "Get up. It's your time"

[Tokami]

What? My third wife. Damn I’m one weird dwarf. So do I have any kids? 👀

[tonnot98]

What? My third wife. Damn I’m one weird dwarf. So do I have any kids? 👀

If not, there's plenty that might be orphaned soon...

[Maloy]

What? My third wife. Damn I’m one weird dwarf. So do I have any kids? 👀

You got one from your first marriage! He's the town drunk
which for dwarves I don't think that is an insult. I think that basically just means he is unemployed

After you split with your first wife you went into the lowlands that is full of undead, goblins, werebeasts and demons and built a very successful career of hunting giant beasts and animal people

I think it's funny because I really did just randomly pick him to have your name because of his decent combat skills and then I look him up after and he has his own crazy backstory and history lol

[Maloy]

The Dwarf in the Dark
continuing the tale from the north

The dwarf had been set free from prison. He had been given alcohol that, if he had drunk before his imprisonment, he would have distinctly described as "fermented chicken piss", but after so long it could be sunshine wine.
He had been taken to a simple interrogation room and after a long discussion with a goblin official terms had been offered:

Muthkat could keep his life, but he would be a slave to the goblin empire until the contract expired. He would serve as a soldier on the front lines and there were no illusions that he would be disposable and thrown at the most dangerous targets. In the mean time between battles he would serve as a fisherdwarf at different pits, but only his military service time would be considered time passing for his contract.

It was a horrible deal. All the good fishing spots were taken by goblins, who'd frequently murder one another for the best spots, and if he ever found too much success they'd demand his spot. He also had a quota on catches too in order to be given more of his chicken-piss beer. Half of the meat around was from intelligent creatures, and soon he would be dispatched to battle.
If he wanted to have any weapons or armor he'd have to scavenge them himself.

It'd be a long five years...literally

Floorsavages
On the surface of the snot-covered tundra walls were being built.
Dwarven workers dug deep with shovels into the mucus, snow and ice trying to reach hard soil underneath to build the walls upon.
It was disgusting and grueling labor in the freezing cold, and a few tried to sing work songs to pass the time, but the mood was implacably low.


From the west approached three figures and the north a large force.
Deep below the earth the fortress proper seemed like a carnival. Dwarves sat, drank, smoked and gambled on tables next to drilling soldiers and traveling artists plying their trade
Outside the fort Tonnot was beating a crundle to death who got in his way

First Defender Besmar's Log
You know people say to journal before you go to bed, but who the hell remembers to do that? And who has so much free time that they can just sit down for an hour each night and write whatever enters their head? Bah, but anyway that's why I stopped dating my entries.

With our next migrant wave we are up to 100 citizens and so I've recruited an extra 20 into the military. 10 of whom are training as crossbow dwarves. Useless against undead, but against a goblin siege long range is going to be essential.
I've been sitting and talking with some of the new guys and many of them are hardened veterans!
Warriors who lived in the lowlands, or served at the border, or longbeards like me who got tired of sitting and doing nothing while the world fell apart.

Saw some faces I recognized amongst them. Good to see my storming off from that stupid camp caused a ruckus.

Now let's talk about those elves though. She elf artists who have been around since before the world began. Somehow? I talked to the lasses and they said the world is older than 314 years! Said before even the age of myth there was a time when greater things walked the planet and shaped it!
Elven jiggery pokery surely.

Still though even if they had been alive at the dawn of history, when elves are currently endangered, that means they have seen centuries of war and the dawn and dusk of their own people. Depressing; no wonder they like our wine.

One of Tomaki's rivals showed up too and I put him in charge of the bowdwarves. Apparently has just as many confirmed kills out there as Tomaki. Maybe a good rivalry will make them work harder who knows

and then the humans showed up...
The chief treasurer of the human merchant's guild. A giant of a man who instead of clothing himself in jewels wore rings and crowns made from slain goblins! I gotta say I'm really starting to appreciate these humans and their culture!
Anyway he worked out a deal with us to bring us some goods like we do with the mountainhome. Along with weapons, armor, and metal I also request capes, because I think I'd look mighty fine in a cape. Did I mention they sell Grizzly Bears??


the human wagons didn't make it to our fort. The mucus falls in globs not in gentle flakes like snow and so one of the wagons blew up into pieces and the rest fled. We started looting immediately and along with books and food and such we also got plenty of weapons!
I think I might wall up the outside though so only pack animals can get in. If everyone keeps losing wagons they'll blame us eventually.

Finally, for small updates Unib got mauled by a dead cave toad. After killing it and leaving he dropped his mace near the body and came back to get it when it reanimated. Beat him pretty bad, but his fault so he has no sympathy from me!
Also Nil Vaultfancied joined our community. She's a legendary dwarf and not just because of her military service. Shortly after signing on and winning some important battles she made a legendary steel crossbow, that she brought with her to our fort, and is now serving with us. She came on her own, but that's sure to get in the mountainhome's way in their attempts to stop us from getting good people here!


Honored Father
"Remember Besmar" the graybeard snapped "Anticipate!"
Besmar had just transferred to the war camp. What would be his war camp. A collection of tents that had sat for generations on the edge of the mountain range. He shouldn't have gotten the camp and he didn't want to have it. It was duty.
Many dwarves simply never had children, and those who did frequently lost them in a time of great war, and so the dwarves had a ritual. The next of kin of a dwarf must give up a child to be that dwarf's son to continue his line and inherit. This dwarf was Besmar's uncle now his "honored father" who he'd have to learn traditions from and follow and continue the line of holding a pointless campsite

"pay attention! These are the honored strategies of your forefathers too now!" The old man snapped "How do we anticipate, whelp?"
Besmar sighed "Learn the enemies intentions and desires and use them against him"
"Good. You might just survive to pass this camp onto your children"

The March of a God

[Maloy]

Here's a random Legends stories that are disconnected from the fort inbetween our titan battle
you can scroll past it if you're not interested in the wider world and is why I'm disconnecting it from the other posts

The Retired Necromancer
Decades ago an alliance of men, elf, dwarf and even goblins came together to defeat a legion of the dead.
The leader of the necromancer coven was defeated and his armies slain, but his coven escaped.

One such survivor is Udil, who lives in the human capitol city.
Since giving up on his dreams of taking over the world he now lives as a banker(at the counting house) his day has become monotonous and ritualistic.
He wakes up and eats breakfast, gets dressed, walks to work and stops to pet the stray cat on the way.
He sits at his desk, counts deposits, and reviews the credit and documentation of people seeking loans. Always charge them ridiculous interest. File for repossession groups to go and get money from those not paying and doing paperwork all day.
He didn't talk to his coworkers and if he ever deviated and went out after work he ate by himself.
On the way home he'd pet the stray cat and go and read until he went to sleep.

He wasn't at all bothered by this. Shackling people into debt didn't seem too far off from shackling their spirits to rotting carcasses, and he had his cat that wasn't really his.
Until one rainy day when he was heading home after a particularly riveting day of signing paperwork to take a family's farm he saw his stray cat lying on the side of the road. Some goblin or street urchin must have beat the thing for it was dead and toothless.

Whether his cold heart felt affection or he merely hated deviation in his schedule he picked up the cat and carried it home.
In secret he resurrected it into as sapient of an undead as he could manage for a mere cat.
With some of it's teeth missing it looked up at him with glowing blue eyes "Meeeoooowww" it said.
He smiled and pat it on it's head and turned to start his nightly reading. The cat jumped in his lap and curled up.
He supposed this was nicer than ruling the world.


Captured Alive
Atlel was one of a host of babies that had been transformed

While we aren't sure why she did it: perhaps she wished to know how the curse would affect babies, or that they were given as willing sacrifices to stave her wrath, or perhaps her hatred for her foes was that great

either way Ushrir had taken around 10 babies and turned all of them into demons. when adults turned they seemed to merely rampage through the lands until someone killed them, but these babies were all intelligent and controlled

Atlel was one and he fought in a series of battles across the lowlands. Even helping humans fight against the goblins.
Over the years she even made friends with an elf and dwarf as they continued the fight against the greenskin menace and their demonic masters

Although one day ill befell her. Atlel was kidnapped. First she was held for years by her hated goblin enemies, and then another goblin civilization far to the north-east kidnapped her. She has languished in their prison for decades now
Her friends died in battle without her and their corpses impaled on spikes as warnings.
What goes through her mind? Does she believe they will still come for her, or being a demon can all she think on is carnage and vengeance?
Who knows, but to this day she is the only demon captured alive which makes her a trophy for any goblin city, and such a source of much conflict as a commodity

[Maloy]

Mafi Leafvine The Washed Hills
God of the land, god of the ages and maker of kings

Before history itself Mafi walked the lands far on the north-west corner of the world.
The titan, who soon became a god, was famous for washing the hills with flames.
His "altar" a charred ruin with scattered corpses of challengers and prey alike.



He slew Dang Appeareddevils. The human descendant and next in line to rule the human confederacy. The human had been raised and indoctrinated as a puppet of goblins and sought to slay Mafi to take glory for himself. Although his ambush succeeded in the end he only succeeded in leaving his own ashes to fertilize the hills
Before that the elven prince Rifafa hunted the beast and became it's meal
And before that yet another puppet elven prince groomed by goblins died by his breath.

The god has had total control of the North-West revered by those who are smart and challenged by the foolish. Nations have been shaped by him, but now he has moved for the first time in centuries.
He has never left his altar before, but now he goes to the far southern edge of the world where gods of death openly hold sway.
What happened? What caused this? Does he fight for supremacy? Hunger for a worthy foe? Or even worse, does he flee from something?


Battlefields of Destiny
Besmar put on his new gear, and although it was new he had donned battle gear so many times it was ritualistic.
First the steel greaves
Then his bronze cap
A single bizmuth bronze gauntlet on his mace hand
A new iron mace to be wielded
and a bizmuth bronze shield

Piecemeal and it made him look like a scavenger or bandit, but he was ready.
He advanced on the main tavern area flanked by two warriors.
it was time to overthrow the mayor. Moldath a new migrant had been elected the first mayor of Floorsavages, and that wasn't going to do. Dwarves wouldn't survive in a literal hellscape with democracy, and he would see to it that power was restored to Imush although she had tried to stop him.

He saw Moldath at the table and made move to approach before he was stopped by Tomaki. Gods were fighting above them.

On the surface...
Mafi emerged from the mirthful forest, although it had been silent on his way through all creatures fearing garnering his attention.
As he marched now through frozen mucus from the north-east of the fortress from the south-west a challenger came.
If Mafi was here to challenge whatever power ruled this land it had decided to take him up on the challenge.

A polar bear marched straight for him: Tezononu/ChanneledCrews a rotted, but not skeletal bear of legend. the battle between nature/life and death/decay was to begin.

Back below...
Besmar barked orders at troops and screamed at civilians to get clear repeatedly muttering "damn damn damn" between commands.
Elf and goblin worshipers of Mafi who happened to be visiting were praying to him asking that he find them worthy when he graces the fort minutes from now.

Halfway up Imush was hard at work in the tunnels. The plan was to wound the creature by digging a staircase into the first cavern layer. It would either kill all the zombies and come for them, and hopefully be weak enough to defeat, or they would trap it in the first cavern layer.
Imush had to deal with the immediate threat of being swarmed by the dead as she finished the work and retreated. As she retreated to the fort a basic wall was erected behind her to direct the dead to the surface instead.

Above...
Mafi started the battle by hurling a fireball at the bear and it burned and burned. But it felt no pain. Mafi tackled it and began clawing and beating it. The bear felt no fear or pain and began to tear into Mafi's soft underbelly with its jaws.
Mafi was so much faster tearing with claws breaking each rotted muscle and bone.


They were in a mad tumble. Mafi turned out to only be fire-resistant and not fireproof as the flesh from his head melted from the fire from the burning polar bear
The bear was being torn apart, but did not care as it tore Mafi's lungs, guts and more


Below

Besmar listened to the scout report still cursing to himself constantly. The monster was losing. It was good, but if they didn't mangle the beast they'd have an undead fire breathing god on the surface! "Scramble the teams! It's all or nothing we don't stand a chance if we don't kill that thing ourselves!"
He drew his mace as construction crews ran ahead to tear down the walls.

As the staircase walls fell they saw on the other side a swarm of dead monsters had already gathered around to find fresh prey. Without fear of drowning though 30 militia dwarves made quick work of them as they swarmed up the stairs.

They rushed through to the surface where snow and mucus fell from the sky in droves and ran south.
It was already over though.

Tezononu wandered north seeking it's next victim. Mafi was dead, but his body definitely not broken.
They swarmed the bear. The most formidable foe they could find out here and it had just slain a god.
The killing blow was struck by Tosid, the new bookkeeper, as he smashed it's skull into a crimson mist with his hammer.


They gathered around Mafi's body and waited. Besmar sent a messenger to have someone carry this body to the forest. If they could get it to the forest in time it wouldn't be able to reanimate over there. They were nail-biting minutes as mafi did not stir.
Out of the hatch from the ground came the mayor Moldath to carry the beast.

did he want to prove himself or something? It didn't matter now, but he chose the most stupid way of handling it. He wasn't carrying mafi to the forest...he was carrying him underground, through the fort, to the part of the cave that is under the forest. Far longer travel although it'd still work.

Besmar wasn't a praying type, but he was praying now as they ran ahead of Moldath to secure the fort proper.

As Moldath was entering the fort he was accosted. A tamed Badger Sow, excited to try and play with a dwarf, yipped and jumped at Moldath's feet pushing him back further and further away as he tried to haul the massive carcass.
Besmar screamed for someone to butcher the stupid beast immediately!

A jaw closed around Moldath's leg and pressed in. He was clawed and bitten ruthlessly and finally kicked in the head. His skull exploding and his lifeless body thrown across the cavern. Next was the badger
Mafi the firebreathing god of nature was no more. Kerligidash rose and roared. Death would brook no contenders here.


He began to tear an elk bird to pieces as Besmar wordlessly charged the others following him.
30 dwarves piled onto this beast, but it's bulk was so large it made their numbers look small
It had already killed an animal trainer and farmer by the time they reached it, although the farmer fought valiantly and bit the creatures head.

Dwarves were beating it with whatever they had, and the beast charged and rampaged across the cavern throwing dwarves all around.
In undeath it appeared unable to breathe flames and instead fought as a beast.

Dwarves were beating swords, shields and hammers against it's thick skull and barely making any progress.

Dwarves who were thrown aside and injured by the beast hid out of range as the rest fought, and over hours as it's bones broke enough it began to slow.

They kept beating on the creature, and many had passed out from exhaustion only protected thanks to the fact that the monster's few working body parts were busy fighting the ones awake.

Although Besmar had been behind it for the last little while he saw a critical opening. He screamed at the top of his lungs and charged. With all his might he swung down straight onto the creatures cracked skull. Iron met god-bone and the iron won as it smashed in and the beast's brain exploded. It fell over in a whimper body still twitching.


In front of the body rose Besmar the First Defender and god-slayer

[Maloy]

This battle gave me a ton of anxiety lol

If it set fire to the forest that would destroy my FPS and rob me of a precious resource

with fire breath it could easily wipe out the whole military unless we could get close enough where it didn't try

if it reanimated it could kill US ALL

was cool that the dwarf I speak and write through got the killing blow

also rip to Moldath I didn't want you to be mayor and you did the exact opposite of what I wanted by carrying the body towards the fortress, but you died trying to save your people from an apocalyptic event so there's that.

Also Mafi had killed a lot of important people over the years including even more leaders than I mentioned. He literally shaped this world's political landscape through fire and blood

[recon1o6]

this
THIS is what you call an end of an era, congratulations mate

your dwarves are on top now. Get those engravers working!

as a side note, a power inested in a mayor is to nominate their own replacement should the overseer desire it. Useful for getting unwanted politicians back to more productive tasks.

[Tokami]

That’s pretty amazing story so far. Haha a fire breathing god of nature sounds like an amusing god. Glad he reanimated for some extra fun haha

[Immortal-D]

You're doing better in a reanimating biome than I ever have.  Would love to see a tour of the entire Fortress.

[King Zultan]

I'd also be interested in a look around the fort.

[Maloy]

this
THIS is what you call an end of an era, congratulations mate

your dwarves are on top now. Get those engravers working!

as a side note, a power inested in a mayor is to nominate their own replacement should the overseer desire it. Useful for getting unwanted politicians back to more productive tasks.

I was debating it! A part of me feels like I should leave the mayoral position organic so that we can have interesting new spontaneous characters

but the other part doesn't want Imush to fade into obscurity. She does all the dangerous mining and plant gathering jobs right now lol

That’s pretty amazing story so far. Haha a fire breathing god of nature sounds like an amusing god. Glad he reanimated for some extra fun haha

Those are the most stressful next to web ones for me. Because of the smoke the fire makes my dwarves get disoriented and don't attack and so it renders superior numbers basically pointless. Once cleared an undead army from my surface fort with one

Turned out he was also fire resistant and not fireproof and the severe heat of incinerating an entire army also did the same to him.

You're doing better in a reanimating biome than I ever have.  Would love to see a tour of the entire Fortress.

Thank you! Downside is that I have only survived by putting everyone useful into the military, and thus actual fort development is super slow. Honestly reminds me more of the military camps I find in adventure mode!

Pictures incoming!
Armok vision

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here is the general area. Dwarves congregate in the middle of the mushroom forest where the bar resides and they drink right next to where I have all the military dwarves drill in the courtyard


We have close to 100 people now and they all stay here in this small room lol. I feel like them being passed out on the floor in such an awkward way makes the picture more endearing

Here is our developing crundle farm in a hollowed out stalagmite


Here's the surface fort amongst fields of mucus.


I actually really love watching the forest and tundra battle in fortress mode.
Random patches of mucus killing spots of the forest. Defiant trees sprouting in mucus land, and mirthful animals patrolling the tundra edges almost taunting the undead.

Here is fortress mode!

Overview of surface region

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here is the surface fort under construction. Just to clarify it won't be for living in. Entirely for military use when dealing with invasions. Will install trap designs later

On the bottom right you'll notice that state-of-the-art wooden trapdoor. That is the original entrance now protected by the latest in dwarven defense. Larch wood trapdoor
From there we have our tunnel system. Try to keep the dwarves out of the mucus since it literally gives them PTSD. You'll see the caravan trade depot at the top left. It's at the start of our ramp leading to the fort. I'll leave the depot there until the tunnel is complete.
The staircase in the middle across from the stone block stockpile leads down into main fort


Staircase eventually leads down to here the caves we now live in. It empties out onto this mushroom and fungus field that we are using for our animals. You can also see the jeweler's stalagmite on the right. Tonnot is hard at work at this very moment cutting gems for us. Also the A is Mafi's corpse. We will hang it up as a trophy once it finishes stinking


Going left leads to the fort. On the next terrace up that you see on the left is our farming fields with our shops to the north. It was and is a temporary set up while we finish designing proper parts of the fort. The stairs leading to the farmer's guild Stalagmite are near the bottom


To the left on the next terrace up you can now see the Farmer's guild stalagmite, and next to it on the left is another stalagmite we are carving. It will be for our metal smithing. They will work, live and have a guild there

Left again we are at the top level of the caves and the fortress ground. The dwarves nearest to the south and west sets of doors are military training. We have 30. Right to them is the hospital where our early zombie incidents happened. Left is the temple with memorial stones being raised around it.
Directly north of our troops is the tavern. I know it's not very dwarfy to say but I like the idea of a tavern being built around bioluminescent mushroom trees and fungus grass.
Far left Stalagmite is the dormitory. Far north one is the crundle spire where I am farming them.


This is directly above the main area. In the middle is Besmar's new office. The hall on the right is where I am going to build a honeycomb of bedrooms. 200 dwarves is too many to house in all the stalagmites so they will live in rooms directly above them and I'll save stalagmites for official uses only.
North of Besmar's office I'm digging the mayor's quarters out. Likely other offices will go there. I haven't decided what to do with the hollowed stalagmite west of Besmar's office yet. Maybe an airlock trap for when forgotten beasts are banging on our doors?

That's all of it! Sorry my fort is so bare bones. I genuinely have to have most dwarves fighting just to prevent a serious zombie outbreak though