I've posted this story countless times before, but it's one of my favorites.
I had a fortress built close to a chasm back when I was new to DF. Thus I didn't fully understand the "implications" such a feature entailed.
I make it to Autumn with literally no hiccups and apparently had built up enough wealth to attract quite a few migrants. Probably close to 14 I think. With them came the usual assortment of peasants, children, and soap makers. This one in particular came with a Fishery Worker who promptly went fishing. She was a female, and yes, this detail is important.
I recruited the peasants (there were two of them) into the military (as usual) and continuing building up my fort.
I'm not sure how much timed passed between then and when my Fisherdwarf was attacked...but it must have been a decent amount, as one of my military dwarves was an Elite Wrestler. His name was Urvad.
Regardless, all of a sudden I see a bunch of "McFisher cancels fish: HOLY SHIT ANTMEN ARE FUCKING CHASING ME!" announcements.
Unfortunately McFisher decided she was too cool to run back to the fortress that was lined with stonefall traps. Instead she ran in circles around the very brook she was fishing out of. So, knowing what to do, I sent in my two man militia to hopefully kill the 3 or so antmen that were chasing her.
One of them made it to her a lot faster than the other (the elite Wrestler, Urvad), and took on the 3 antmen himself. In a fit of rage (I assume!) he tore through 2 of the antmen like they were better. I had high hopes for the guy.
That is, until I saw the Giant Caveswallowman.
The remaining 3rd antman actually continued to chase the McFisher while Urvad had to deal with this bizarre half-man/half-cave swallow abomination. The fight was horrific. Urvad mangled the creature's upperbody, but that's about all he could do. The creature ripped him apart limb from limb...literally. Both of his arms were torn off, leaving this mighty wrestler all but useless. His arms fell at his sides and stained the brook with blood. Urvad fell unconscious.
At that exact moment the second wrestler finally "caught up" and was lucky enough to finish off the cave swallowman by himself. Urvad lived...McFisher did not. She ended up running away from the antman straight into...yes...another group of antmen. She actually ran TO the chasm...I have no idea why. But she died, which made Urvad's efforts entirely fruitless.
After what seemed like an eternity someone finally hauled Urvad to a bed in the barracks where he laid unconscious, his body a bloody mess...and without any arms attached to it.
There Urvad stayed in a coma. He became thirsty, and then finally dehydrated, but he never woke up, and thus no one could give him the water he seeked. I agonized over this, desperately pouring over the Wiki and forums looking for a way to save my warrior.
I found none. Urvad eventually died of thirst.
I had expected this and fashioned an Iron Coffin...too late was I able to process the metal that would have made the armor that could have saved his life. I wondered if it was ironic or perhaps even insulting to bury him in a metal casket for this reason...but the choice was made.
I keep my fortress on a tight schedule to prevent idlers, so the only people available for hauling where the children who I could not force into labor. So it was the two kids who came with the migrants that hauled Urvad's body into his coffin. Then they went outside.
Initially I was very confused and then very horrified given the current situation outside. I had stationed the surviving soldier outside by the door to try and bait some of the antmen into my traps. I entered one of the child's relationship window to see if perhaps one of his parents was the soldier I had stationed outside, as I knew children usually followed their parents around. It was then I found out the horrible truth...the one-in-a-million moment I just witnessed.
These two children were siblings. Their father? None other than Urvad himself.
That was horrifying enough. But the only thing to make it worse...their mother? The Fisherdwarf.
I then replayed the moments of the day back in my mind with this new information. Urvad wasn't just trying to rescue a Fisherdwarf. He was trying to rescue his wife. He failed saving her and ended up losing both of his arms and later, his life, in the effort.
The final icing on the cake, aside from these two orphans burying their father while their mother's corpse lay rotting by the chasm...was when I figured out why they were outside. Remember Urvad's arms being ripped violently off of his body? Well, as I said, they landed by the river. They were now bones...bones that the kids then hauled back to the coffin.
Yes...they were out by the river to fetch the two mighty arm bones their father had lost in the fight trying to rescue their mother.
I actually abandoned that fortress soon after. It was just too much to handle.
Since then, though, whenever I have to name an RPG character, I always pick Urvad as the name.
Author
Topic: One-in-a-million moments you've witnessed? (Read 66924 times)