~~Prologue
War had been waged between the Ashen Trades and the Deep Incest for an uncounted number of years, but as the years dragged on, the goblin's forces grew and the dwarven defenders died off. Little remained of the once glorious people of Soundedcloisters, and the battles began to take ever increasing tolls among the population. In 106, the final battle for Soundedcloisters was waged and the city fell, fell to the very people that were raised there.
The goblin's forces barely consisted of goblin troops towards the end of the war. The goblins were sinister people. The same children that were kidnapped on their raids of the mountainhome became great leaders of the goblin cause, for they knew no better. The demon, Ngob Flareheat, the Fires of Parching, had demented these dwarves, and raised them to fight in his honor, providing them the best weapons he could conjure with his fell magicks. There would come a time when the great tyrant would fall, at the hand of Kikrost Shimmerdwire, the Artificial Vanishment, but the forces that would cause the end of the Ashen Trades had already been trained to accomplish their master's goal.
The siege of Soundedcloisters was short. The defences fell to the incredible might of the goblin tide, but a number of dwarves fought to defend what they lived for. Those who survived, however, were the ones who fled.
In weeks coming up the final battle a group of dwarves formed a secret council for the sake of continuing their race. The number of dwarves that could leave and start a new colony was minimal, but was hoped to be enough. Merely a week before the siege began, the first dwarves departed, in complete secrecy, to their first destination, a tavern in the not-too-distant town of Tourdrink.
One dwarf, though, who wasn't part of the council, managed to escape the battle...
---
In retrospect, Kurel could remember very little of the battle. All he remembered now was running. Running and dodging. The bolts from so many goblin crossbows had nearly impaled him during his escape. He had only one thought of how to escape, and it wasn't the safest of ways out. He would need to be quick about how he did everything as well.
He remembered stories of the tombs and the mysterious wails that could often be heard coming from them. He had also heard that the walls seemed to weep for the dead. He was born to a lineage of miners, and as a great miner, he knew what really laid beyond the walls of the tombs: a great river that flowed through the mountain. If he could reach it before the goblins found him and killed him, maybe he could escape.
The tombs were just ahead of him, but it would still be a while before he could break through the wall. He just hoped the wall wasn't too thick.
---
He was there. He hefted his pick above his head an swung.
*tink*
The rock began to fall into neat piles around his feet.
*tink*
He could almost hear the water rushing beyond the wall.
*tink*
Everything went black.
Water rushed through the city, carrying anything caught in it's way along with it. The goblins, none of whome knew how to swim, fled, though the damage had been done. Eventually the river began to drag things back into the hole Kurel had just made in the once sacrosanct tombs, and along with it Kurel's limp body.
---
When he finally awoke he realized he was moving. Not as though he were moving by force of water, but more of a slow kind of movement that reminded him of the days he had went exploring the countryside with his brother in a wagon. The slow jerking of the horse pulling the wagon along left him sleepless many a-night. Once again it had awoken him.
"He's awake, Asmel," called a skinny dwarf, many seasons younger than Kurel, towards the front of the wagon.
"Oh, another mouth to feed then. Why did you ever have to say the man was there, Merseth. We could've just kept going, but no," returned a voice of what sounded like an older dwarf.
Thoughts were racing through Kurel's head right now. Where am I? What are these people doing? How did they find me?" The only thing that made it's way to Kurel's lips, though, was, "I'm hungry."
"Oh, shut your trap," called the voice from the front of the wagon. "We're nearing the town anyways. We'll stop at the inn and wait for the others to arrive."
"They will arrive, right Asmel?"
"Oh, by Duthnur, only fools wouldn't come! We plan to forge a new home for our people! We are the last of the first, Merseth, and the first of the second."
At those words, Kurel faded back into a deep slumber.
---
He awoke to find the wagon had stopped, and seemed to be sitting outside the walls of a town. Presumably it was the town the older dwarf, Asmel, had spoken of. Quickly, he jumped out of the wagon and rushed towards the gates. Hopefully the guards would let him in, but where was he to go from there? He had to find whatever tavern they were meeting in... Had Asmel ever even said the name of it?
The guards at the gate were tall, far taller than Kurel, and they didn't even notice him until he approached them and asked if they could open the gate for him to enter.
"I believe you're late for your meeting, stout one, but inside these walls you'll soon find where your brethren are lodging. The tavern is the first thing people look at inside the town and she's the only one here."
"Thank you kind guard," Kurel replied, hoping all humans were this kind.
---
The light inside the tavern was dim, since all humans knew were candles; The fungi that grew in the caverns didn't light the halls of man. It took Kurel no time at all to find the fellow dwarves among the crowd, a quiet group when compared to the rowdiness of the already drunken dwarves.
Sitting with the group was a well dressed human, with an empty seat immdediately beside him. Kurel sat down next to the man and asked what had been said.
"Well, so far the loud one on the table there has proposed that they travel north, through the Rotting Pass and embark towards the Earthen Towers, the mountain range far to the north west of your former home, a mighty fine plan, if I do say so myself."
The man intrigued Kurel, not so much because he was a human, but because he was interested in the dwarven affairs. Perhaps all humans were kind or perhaps this man was important. "Who are you?" Kurel asked.
"I'm the mayor of Taldirlu, the town you're in. I'm providing your people with all the supplies they will need. Strong allies are helpful in times of need, and the nobility of our region have been very well served by your people. We are giving you a parting gift.. As thanks for defending our peoples from the goblins. Without you, our men will surely need better training, and in exchange for these supplies, some of these brave dwarves have offered to stay behind and train our militias into true armies."
---
Returning from the tavern with the rest of the dwarves, his fellow dwarves, made Kurel feel as though Soundedcloisters had never fallen. He felt at home among them.
"Tonight we rest, for tomorrow we ride forth in our wagons, to a new home; A home far distant from these doomed lands, safe from these demons, the goblins, to start anew," were words of Asmel, who had been elected a leader of the group; they rang through the town and received many cheers from the dwarves. Tomorrow a new civilization would enter the world, though it would still bear the name of it's mother, the Ashen Trades.
---***---
Alrighty, if you read the whole prologue to the story, you'd get the basic concept of this fort. tl;dr is that the dwarves in the world I genned died off and this is how they're beginning anew. The fort is planned to be a community fort, even though 3 dwarves have already been claimed by me. Anyone who is willing to sign up can do so, hopefully before I actually embark. There will probably be a fair amount of cheating involved, and a major part of that would be the embark settings. I'm completely open to as many dwarves as people are willing to sign up for, hopefully not passing 15 or so.
To sign up for a dwarf, just list the name, and profession you would like. Personalities are unfortunately completely up to the randomness of the game, but I'll post them when this all starts.
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Topic: Dawn of the Dwarves (Community Fort in a Dwarfless World) (Read 3134 times)