ah. my writing failed me. however, I possess an unorganized folder of various screenshots from the past week of play. in no particular order, the follow will document the most curious moments before the abandonment of Reigngate due to cave swallow incursion in year 261.
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The kill list of this cavern invader speaks for itself...Magma took two years to travel across the cavern. A second tunnel was needed to counteract evaporation.in 256, the cult was at its strongest. the fourth variety of were beastiethis weird demon beat the werecapy to death with a bookghostly murders were a regular sight for the entirety of Reigngate's existencebird on bird actiona disastrous first engagement with the largest of the invader force. we technically succeeded, but the losses were horrendous and the military never really recovered.the surface sieges proved a lesser but still deadly threat.the weremonitor transformed in the library, atop the red table strewn with papers, now even more red with various juicesone of the yearly sacrifices escaped thanks to a ghost unlocking the spike chamber too early. they were immediately elected mayor... Zimesh spared this one.a Minotaur falls easily to the obsidian bladesso, too, a Cyclopsgoblins take advantage of the architecture and camp in a precarious spot. the dwarves are unable to approach - that is a 40 z-level fall beneath.further images from the glory days. little did I know.the ever expanding catacombsthe surface chasm grows yearly. ghosts of the previous sacrifice console the chosen, before the lever is pulledexcept Stinthad, who has murdered over ten as a ghost, and tries to kill one of the sacrifices mid-flightthe epic tale of the once-insane, bedridden leader who rose up after surgery and was immediately cursed by Zimesh to thirst for blood. This babbling leader was imprisoned in the temple after this, and presumably sits there still. fancy gem vaultsSibrek, who shoved an adult dwarf off the staircase, shows little remorse that one time the entire first squad flung themselves into the 40-z level pit, AND SOMEHOW SURVIVED, likely due to their angle of attack, and the horizontal movement lessening the damage caused by impact. caught me entirely off guard since I expected their immediate explosions upon landing.perhaps the most coolest artifact, but never had a chance to get used before some dwarf lost it in a cavern fight.some more fancy vaults259 was a bad year. the military was entirely wiped after a goblin siege became stuck on the map's edge, preventing new migrants from arriving to re-fill the squadsthe bloodied autumn blooms of the mountainsideghostlistUvash, before he was turnt vampireand then we lost half the miners in a terrible staircase accident. a single dropped block tumbled down and knocked loose or killed all these dwarves. After so much violence in 259, and with the commitment to a yearly %10 sacrifice never being forgotten or skipped, the dwarves of Reigngate then experienced a number of terrible in-fights... and at some point the cavern invaders returned. In 10 years, FPS had dropped from ~150 to ~16, and this was becoming untenable. So it was decided to sally forth from the cavern gate and clear out the swallows.
There are always more of them than you expect. Always. The gate was closed, but not before the whole squad was dead and about a dozen of the spear-wielding death birds had flown inside. At this point FPS went down to single digits, apparently the birds pathfinding and my catacombs do not mix. Rather than spending hours IRL waiting for the end, I went for the dignified abandonment.
Uvash the vampire lives on, and I imagine he will immigrate at some point to another fortress in this world.
It was a great challenge but not for the faint of heart. balancing mood and maintaining even the slightest bit of productivity took a fair amount of central planning and a lot of gold flooring..
A fair amount of horrible violence and gore occurred here, so much so that I felt a bit queasy at times, like, "why am I roleplaying the fantasy equivalent to the bad guys from Ralph Bakshi's Wizards? or recreating the enslaved future earth from Samurai Jack, the one where Aku whips you if you fail to mine crystals fast enough?" basically I didn't want this fortress to turn into another episode from the mermaid farm, you know?
the herds of ghosts were really interesting to watch, as they seemed to cluster mostly around their death location (the pit of spikes), while others trailed old professions. I kept imagining how annoying it would be to have a ghost try to give you advice, or correct your mistakes as you make them. We had multiple murderous ghosts, including the type that cause grievous physical damage like ripping out spines or tearing off limbs, and the second variety that simply killed through fright. One ghost went beserk but did nothing but throw harmless thread and cloth around. One ghost had over ten kills, while another seemed to enjoy assassinating cult leaders. that one felt like the simulation had come alive, and was trying to end the cult of death...
final vod:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WzbIFfyjNU where you can see the end state of the chasm, the beginnings of the obsidian tower of death, and the final battle of the Cave Swallow invaders.
anyways, I am looking forward to more
wholesome encounters with the simulation in the future. until next time, thanks for reading :\/
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Topic: The Cult at Reigngate - Succumbed to the Cave Swallow (Read 1361 times)