Act II Looming ThreatsFrom up above the tundra was a disgusting yellow blanket. For countless miles all you'd see is stinking yellow only ever broken by aimless dots of wandering undead and the occasional fly swarm nesting and feasting on the detritus from the sky
The surface fortress of Floorsavages was like a bile pustule waiting to be burst. The color of its stones impossible to determine from the layer of mucus, but rising from the flat surface. What should have been a declaration of resistance looked more like a boil.
Dwarves had gone too and fro looting the collapsed remains of the wagons
Soldiers dug through frozen mucus and lifted up new prizes to wear
Some dwarves cracked open the kegs left behind and enjoyed a drink between trips
Children started gathering around the spectacle despite the insistence of parents
Then, as it always did, Mucus began to rain again. In response wailing rose.
The fort was littered with madmen. Homeless and lost to despair they wandered from the bowels of the earth to the surface. Hardly eating or drinking and despairing inevitable doom. The mucus was a reminder of the evilness of the land and they only cried ever louder in response.
Workers pushed aside their drinks and hurried to the now unpleasant task
Hours passed by. Mucus gave way to a blizzard of snow and ice and all workers had already gone below, but not the children. They had stayed until too late.
Tobulgireth an undead polar bear much like the one that had defeated the plains god had come searching for life. Two children were buried under its great body. The beast lacking intelligence of its living counterparts it had no concept of inflicting lethal blows like a true predator. It savaged the children. Their cries and resistance slowly growing quieter as attack after attack inevitably became more fatal
But in the distance through the blizzard a silhouette was visible. A single dwarf warrior marched to the beast. Besmar the First Defender alone
He refused to wait for backup to save the children and went ahead. In an instant the bear made eye contact. It lunged off from the children to the dwarf.
Besmar was fast as a whip and slammed the bear with his god-slaying mace three times. First in the leg, and as the bear tumbled past again in the chest and then abdomen. The bear did not slow at all and swiped and charged at Besmar as he dodged each blow. He again struck at its legs, but the beast was unaffected. Back and forth they fought. Every blow of Besmar to either topple or end the beast did not damage it, and the beast could not hit him.
But the beast had endless lifeless energy and Besmar was still a dwarf. It roared and charged slamming into him and throwing him to the ground. He rolled and dodged slashing out at it. Were it a living beast it might recoil to protect itself, but it only continued to lash out without landing a blow. He bit its rotten front leg with his teeth and latched on firmly, and even still the beast could not hit him as he continued to beat it with his mace.
The titanic struggle seemed to last an eternity until finally out of the blizzard three more dwarves charged in, including Zan Besmar's second in his squad and wielder of his first mace. The three worked on the bear and even though their weapons did little against its hard flesh and bone it was eventually beaten down until Zulban charged ahead and came with his Bronze Warhammer crashing down crushing the foul beast's mangy skull in an explosion of gore
"Mangled it...Good. you lads will make good dwarven soldiers yet" Besmar said gruffly
They turned and saw the children. Both were dead and horribly mutilated, but not mangled. No one said a word. They all gathered around and took up guard around the small corpses. Ready to do the grim work needed when the children inevitably rose again...
Down below on a great dwarven highwayunder the interim mayor's tenure the highway was almost complete. A vast dwarven tunnel stretching from the surface fort all the way to the second cavern layer allowing caravans direct access to the fort. The last section of tunnel had to be dug, but there was a wrinkle.
It was above the dwarves and completely flooded. The aquifer above was tainted with the carcass of Libash who was reanimated and trapped.
Tokami and his team were dispatched to wait at the end of the mine while miners began to break through to the foul waters above.
Moldath and the rest were briefed by Tokami as they waited. "The magic here keeps bodies from decomposing once they animate. They stay in whatever condition they were in. Libash died from drowning and likely hasn't rotted at all. That said she has been sitting in this water for over a year now. So we can't be sure what state she will be in. We make this quick and clean. Hold onto the walls around you and as she falls out with the rest of the water we will break her. Quick clean and mangled just like the First Defender likes it, right?"
It was hard for Moldath to believe he spent years as a slave-soldier to goblins just to fight in this hellhole. When did he get to enjoy some rest? His fighting experience prevented him from having a choice from joining the militia here.
The nervous miner finally made it. Dwarves grabbed onto the rough walls around them. The water was already almost to their ankles from being so close to the Aquifer. The miner took one great stroke against the wall. Two. Three
Black water exploded out. the miner was engulfed in it, presumably slammed into the wall and then washed down the tunnel below towards the fortress.
Within the seconds that felt like minutes fetid black water rushed past and knocked his fellow squadmates down the tunnel as well. The few that held on watched. Just barely within the water was a dwarfish form. The dwarf-thing was bloated beyond belief and its skin had fallen off, but all beneath it was still in perfect condition. The beast rolled helplessly as it went downstream.
Above the loud onrush of water Tokami shouted for them to strike.
Feb slashed Dead-Libash's arm off with her free hand, Moldath her right leg, and Tokami finally cut her head free as the body flew past them.
"Uvash curse it! We didn't mangle it the body is heading for the fort!"
Libash's head and limbs didn't follow the rest of her and had already reanimated. With a quick stomp of their feet or swing of their weapons they were dealt with as they rushed down the tunnel to catch the rest of her.
She had already reanimated again and was attacking dwarven citizens down the tunnel who were paralyzed and helpless. They descended on her before she could wound anyone.
Down at the Fortress Properwork continued in the fort unabated.
Outside the fort were constant struggles against the dead. Living crundles being chased by undead monsters, drowned dwarves waiting in the ponds for others to join them, and patrolling dwarves looking to keep the numbers of the dead in check while civilians gathered wild fungi for the people of the fort.
Inside troops drilled in the square.
The titan god's skeleton hung from the central spire as a permanent reminder of dwarven triumph.
the mayor's office finished as he met with the human merchant's guild about the capital's devastation
Dwarves prayed and meditated, including one famous monster slayer
The blacksmith's spire was completed. Hollowed out to allow heat to exit it saw the works of dwarven smiths. Tender in their works in comparison to humans or goblins when at work at a forge.
Another spire dotted with windows as the new farmer's guild who kept flocks and fields below
And the Jeweler spire where Tonnot worked day and night creating wealth to keep the fort worthwhile for traders
The world outside was madness, chaos and death. Even with it being so distant though the dwarves knew that the line between this society and that world was thinly guarded by dwarven sacrifice. The wails of madmen were a constant reminder of such
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Topic: Floorsavages -Preparing for the apocalypse the Dwarven way (Read 10006 times)