12.8 TowerEnded 1109With everyone clothed and the fortress more-or-less in order, the squad commanders have petitioned the mayor to resume military operations; I’m relieved that I’m not the only one beating on this particular drum.
The tower of
SavageSculpted, will, for once, be attacked by us. Despite the two attacks it launched upon us, it still claims to be ‘at peace’ with TowerEnded. It’s about time we return some of that peace, right back at it. We’ll keep the First Axes, our most experienced troops, to guard the fort, but the other 5 squads will be sent out.
The Second Axes, Crossbows, and Spears will go to raze the tower; meanwhile, our least-experienced troops, the Swords and Hammers, will be sent against the cavern of
MiredCracked. This den of kobolds has been robbing everyone and everything for centuries, and we are finally fed up with it.
While the military travels, the fort carries on. An interrogation report has come by my desk; it’s notable because it
doesn't have an undead plotting against us. Wonder of wonders.
If I’m being paranoid about it, I suppose the report could be regarded as suspect: the undead in question,
Urdim RingLabor, has been a captain of the guard himself, when he was still living. It’s not impossible that he may have enough knowledge to deceive our own captain. For now, we’ll presume he is innocent, and merely watch over him.
All troops have returned by the end of Granite. The tower of
SavageSculpted doesn’t fall, despite its many losses. Pestrat himself has been killed by
Shorast BaldCopper, commander of the Spear squad, but the Tower itself perseveres.
Half this fort's reason for existing has been achieved, and it seems just so... anticlimactic.
MiredCracked falls entirely; our 20 half-trained soldiers face off against 86 kobolds, and wipe them out completely.
The two treasures rumored to have been stored in the cave have been retrieved:
The Wheel of Fortune, a tsavorite scepter, and
SellFortune, a dwarf skull totem. Both were created centuries ago in ScarredGlazes, and SellFortune was made by a goblin -- hence the grizzly choice of material. Troops couldn’t capture any of the giant cave spiders that the kobolds had tamed; they were trained as war beasts, and had to be killed.
It’s now time to rest, heal wounds, and upgrade gear, if needed. Once summer comes around, we’ll either be attacked, or we’ll attack in turn.
1109.02.12
LessenedSkirted, an artifact brown zircon crafted here in 1104, is now missing from TowerEnded! A swift bout of interrogations finds the culprit:
Oddom ConfineDagger. He arrived mere days ago, which is why there wasn’t an existing interrogation.
The treasure isn’t in his possession, and he didn’t implicate any citizen. We can still condemn him for espionage, but his accomplice for the theft remains unknown. Without an established prison, the would-be thief leaves after his beating, and we are left with an unsolved mystery. The perfect brown zircon is somewhere in the fort, but… where?
Summer arrives, and Oddom returns briefly. He doesn’t seem to do any harm, nor take any treasures, and the interrogation has revealed no new information. As far as we can tell, he was merely passing through:
But, back to martial matters. We were not attacked, so we’ll be the ones attacking. While the rest of the fort is preparing to receive the human caravan, the best-trained troops (the marks-dwarves and ax-dwarves) are sent to whittle the Tower’s defenses. They had no surprises: as it was planned, the troops snuck about, killed whichever undead crossed their path, then retreated.
Unless the unexpected happens, we’ll run a full attack upon the Tower at the end of this season, and hopefully raze it from existence.
1109.04.17 Elections have taken place again, and I’m back as mayor! My priority now should be the caravan, but they can wait for a few more days. Instead, I order a jail hastily built in a still-unused suite of rooms originally intended for unexpected nobility:
Then I can deal with the merchants. Afterwards, I’ll take a closer look at our military, and see if they require anything else.
1109.06.01 Troops have rested and resupplied; it’s time to finish off the Tower. With its chief necromancer dead and only undirected mindless undead wandering through it, it should be a soft target; nonetheless, the entire army will be sent on this endeavor.
1109.06.06 The Tower was very far from a soft target: although our troops have nearly annihilated its undead residents, we’ve paid a heavy price for it. Nine dwarves total -- three ax-dwarves, three spear-dwarves, two crossbow-dwarves and one sword-dwarf have left their bones within that cursed place:
1109.07.11 A last attack has finally annihilated the Tower of
SavageSculpted. With only 8 undead left in its twisted corridors, we finally had our short victorious war.
1109.07.12 While we’re distracted with raids and still reeling from last month’s losses, Ngokang stole an artifact goblin bone scepter and fled the fortress; and so we lost
The Profane Hall. To be frank, I’m not all that sorry about it; only a goblin could appreciate a scepter made from the bones of one of their kin. He is condemned
in absentia, and the next time he shows his face in this fort he’ll get beaten and imprisoned.
1109.08.05
Usek PlayIvory, the undead hamster man, has returned to TowerEnded, and was promptly imprisoned for his theft from 1104. He had a pending 8-month sentence, and now it’s being executed.
Winter has come, temperatures are not as oppressively scorching as they usually are, and it’s time for TowerEnded’s army to deal with its other foes.
The Tomb of
InchedFence, home of Usek PlayIvory and place of dubious rest for his master
Rafeb LunchesDents, will be raided by 32 dwarves; these are the combined numbers of our second axes, marksdwarves, swords, and hammers. With only seven undead humans inhabiting it, it shouldn’t pose much of a problem.
The Dark Fortress
FrayMaligned is reported to have a very low population, only 30 or so goblins, but there’s no telling how many trolls, beak dogs, or other creatures are also loitering among the ruined glory of an ancient goblin stronghold. We decide for a probing attack, made by the First Axes and the Spears. Their job is to verify our information, and to remove as many enemies as it is opportune.
This arrangement leaves the fortress undefended, but we gamble we’ll be fine. Or at least, that we can close hatches until the troops return.
1109.11.07
FrayMaligned was reached first; it was an unmitigated disaster. Of the 17 dwarves sent, only one has returned:
Eral BronzeFold, a legendary axe-dwarf who didn’t really stand out until now. It’s only thanks to him that we have any idea of what happened: the Fortress was defended by the famed Goblin Lady
Smunstu MenaceTempt: 350 years old, and collecting skills like kobolds collect trinkets:
Thanks to her brilliant leadership and warcraft, the First Axes and the Spears have been lost. 12 have been killed, and 4 have been taken prisoner -- two swords-dwarves, and two spear-dwarves, including the respective leaders of these squads.
We have severely underestimated the goblins.
The fort is, understandably, in chaos. I announce the formation of two new axe squads, to be led by two veteran axe-dwarves, presuming they should return well. We are immediately swamped by volunteers, and it will be up to the future squad leaders to whittle them down to 20.
1109.11.09 The attack on
Inchedfence has gone much better. All expected 7 humans have been re-killed; Rafeb LunchesDents was struck down by the sword-dwarf
Rith Shootgleam. The troops then scoured the tomb, but could not find the Onslaught of Fogs.
With all returned, it’s my grim duty to disband the old squads, and recreate the new ones. The new First Axes still hold the fort’s finest axe-dwarves… all 6 of them, now that 2 have been made into squad leaders. Crossbow-dwarves number 8, after losing two in SavageSculpted. Sword-dwarves number 9, and that’s after re-drafting a married couple who had previously retired to care for their infant child. Hammerers are the one squad to boast full numbers. And lastly, no spear-dwarves remain; there will never be another spear-dwarf squad in TowerEnded. The 20 new recruits are once again sent into the barracks, to train without any other distractions. And now, we wait for spring.
Onget SearchHatchet, legendary ax-dwarf of TowerEnded, made its way through the tomb’s maze-like corridors with care; it would be ridiculous to have lived this long, done this much, and reached this far, only to die in some shoddy human trap. An un-dwarven death.
The seven undead humans inhabiting this tomb have all been slain already, as was one undead kobold they hadn’t known about. The hamster man was the last, and he was rotting (heh) in a cage in TowerEnded. Onget believed the undead should be killed anyway; he knew he wasn’t the only one. It likely wouldn’t happen; killing prisoners was something the undead or the goblins did, not civilized people. But still… perhaps a little accident could be arranged? There’s no need to lose face, but there’s also no need to let an abomination walk free.
But that was for later, when he returned to TowerEnded. Now, they were all scouring the tomb for a lost artifact copper breastplate. None of the corpses had it on them; which made sense, the breastplate was sized for dwarves not humans. In fact, none of the 9 creatures associated with the tomb even had the ability to wear the Onslaught of Fogs; but they still strived to acquire it.
Onget idly wondered: was this simple greed pushing them? Or did they intend to seduce away another dwarf, and the breastplate was a part of their price? There was no way to tell anymore.
The victorious troops had already found two books, but not the Onslaught of Fogs; even if they failed, they would not return entirely empty-handed.
Onget carefully opened a door on the second level of the tomb. It opened into a three-wide corridor, whose walls were lined with pedestals; and on the most distant one, lay a flawless copper breastplate. He had found it. They could all finally leave for home.
Although… should he keep it? He wondered idly while checking the floor for any hidden traps. He already wore a copper breastplate; a masterwork, for sure, but not an artifact. Does a legendary ax-dwarf not deserve legendary armor? Did he not earn it by now?
Onget took the artifact breastplate, and concealed it in his backpack, by his food rations. He doubted he could use it while still in TowerEnded, but there was always another fort.
One day later, the 32 troops that razed InchedFence left back for TowerEnded, believing they had not found the Onslaught of Fog. All, but one.
The Beast Master’s Log:1109.02.14 An unknown beast arrives in the first cave. A skinless lizard, with three broad horns; it spits out gas that’s sufficiently potent to affect Avuz, so we’re naming it The Tenebrous Poison. Despite its poisonous exhalations, Avuz kills it.
1109.05.03 Another brand-new Beast arrives in TowerEnded, only to swiftly die to its fire-breathing residents. An eyeless hummingbird with indigo feathers and a bulging trunk, we name it
Kadol DaggerEcho; it bled to death in the heat of Avuz MurkyGrowled the Fierce’s fires.
1109.05.13 Ten days later, the story repeats in the third cavern: we almost log the Beast as a new one, but we think it may be known:
Weri SinfulDemon, who attacked HallCaught once in 110, then was not seen until now, when it arrived to die to Nglush.
1109.07.11 Another beast, same cave, same fate. This one seems to be
Aru, a towering hairy butterfly, who rampaged twice through the fort of SquirtedWheel, in 47 and 52, achieved no casualties, and then vanished until now.
1109.09.11
Sofipu Seduceddogs the Loyalty of Echoes was struck down by the forgotten beast Avuz Murkygrowled the Fierce. Sofipu is an ancient enemy of ours (among others), having rampaged since the beginning of the world through our ancestral lands. With its demise, the many dead of ElderTrade are finally avenged.
I’ve glossed over a third theft, because it happened in the same conditions as the other two:
Long story short, Risen ‘Mother 01’ ClaspCat is a thoroughly corrupt dwarfette. Her hubby died last year (1108.07.03), so there’s definitely potential for a story there… single mom, 5 children, one of them a tiny baby, she no longer feels she can afford trouble, and has no issue skimming a little bit off the top for herself and the family she’s now solely responsible for.
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Topic: The World Of Bones - Succession World - Ended (Read 30098 times)